Author’s Note: None of these links are referrals. I have placed links in this article as a resource to you.

Who couldn’t use more money, especially at this time of year? I am here to tell you that there are ways to earn money from home. However, to be very honest, it is easier to earn gift cards from home; to be even more honest, you could earn a lot more money by picking up a part time job. Still, if you have more time on your hands than money or perhaps you just need to bring more money in at all costs, there are some services that may be for you.

While I certainly have not gotten rich from making money on my computer, I wanted to share some promising companies in case you are interested in making pocket money on the side.

Make Money on Your Smartphone

WeReward: This is for iPhones as well as Androids and Blackberries. You are paid a small sum of money to make yourself into an advertisement by taking a photo of yourself using specific products. Each earned point is worth a penny, and when you accumulate 1,000 points ($10.00) you can cash out through PayPal.

GigWalk: This is a mobile app (for iPhones) that can earn you money. You accept ‘gigs’ and are paid typically $3-$5 per gig via PayPal for your work (you also incur a Paypal fee to accept the payment). Some of the gigs include taking photos of things (businesses, menus, signs) and recording the inside of businesses. This has rolled out in the last six months and appears to be growing quickly (not sure if they are in Houston yet or not). It is free to sign up.

Field Agent:  This will pay you between $2-$8 for your field work. Payment is made through PayPal, and this company will pay all PayPal fees for you. What types of offers you get depends on a rating system of your past performance; highly scored members will receive better work offers (you begin with a score of 85).

Get Paid to Answer Other People’s Questions Online

ChaCha.com: You can get paid to answer questions from people via your computer (they text the questions in). Guides can earn a set amount per each task completed. Expeditors earn $0.02 cents per completed task and Transcribers earn $0.03 per completed task. Generalists & Specialists earn between $0.10 and $0.20 per completed task, based on the category of the question.

Make Money from Surveys, Reading Emails, and Viewing Ads

MyPoints: I personally use MyPoints and receive CVS giftcards in $10 denominations. But you can cash in your points to a PayPal account as well. To give you an idea of the reward amount, I have been a member since July 12, 2008 and have earned a total of 22,800 points (or approximately $150 in gift cards or $125 in cash to a PayPal account). To prioritize my time, what I do is once a week while watching television I do a search of my email account for “MyPoints” to get all of the emails from the last week. Then one by one I open them up, click on the “read” button, delete the email and immediately go to the next one. I find that clicking on these emails as they show up throughout the week is not worth it because it takes too much time. I never seem to qualify for the surveys so I just delete these offers instead of trying to qualify (though if you click through and do not qualify you still receive 10 points). Also one more word of warning: it takes several weeks for your “pending” points to be redeemable. The great thing is that periodically you will get an offer for something that you wanted to purchase anyway—a win-win situation.

Money Saving Mom Survey Panel: Money Saving Mom is a blog I follow (and highly recommend). You can expect several great deals a week just by checking in everyday! The site owner has her own Survey Panel and if you click on the link above you can see how to earn up to $15 per week by joining.

Several other companies in this category that will pay cash are Opinion Outpost, Surveyhead, ClixSense, and YouData. I have not personally tried these, but they are highly regarded in the blogosphere and among readers.

Do you earn money online? Which companies do you go through? How much have you earned and what amount of time was it in?  

Last week during the television show Downsized, the Bruce family was faced with losing their entire emergency fund again due to an acute health problem and the resulting hospital bill, a car breaking down, and various other unexpected costs with the kids. The husband (Todd) was dealing with the problem by negotiating with the hospital, car repair parts place, dentist, and each of the other vendors in order to lower their overall bill. But the wife (Laura) had another idea all together: sell her engagement ring and wedding band.

This sparked up quite the conversation in our household, as I had once suggested we do the same thing. When Paul proposed to me in June 2009 he presented me with a gorgeous engagement ring. It was a platinum band with a beautiful clear-cut diamond cast between two diamond baguettes. The proportions were perfect for me—the diamond and band were not too wide or gaudy—and the setting was not so high that I felt it would catch on everything. And then I found out how the ring felt like it was made for me: Paul had designed it with the jeweler. Over the course of several weeks after deciding that it was time to propose, he had spent lunches with a jeweler on Buffalo Speedway to mold some metal and a stone into a beautifully shaped token of love. I gladly accepted.

We did not want a long engagement so we began planning for the wedding almost immediately. I had not been saving for one as most of my teenage and young adult life I didn’t think I was the marrying type. In fact, the only reason why I said yes was because it meant that I got to spend the rest of my life with Paul—the rest of being married I figured we could work out. Combined we were $25,000 in debt at that moment, we wanted to put a decent downpayment on a home, and we wanted to pay for our wedding in cash. All of this was to happen within the next 8-9 months. One day during a pragmatic conversation about finances and the wedding day I decided to throw out an idea he might be up for. “I think we should sell my engagement ring to help pay for the wedding.” It was almost dead silence after that, followed by a few minutes of a look of disbelief coming my way.

I knew that selling the ring would get us a notch closer to being where we wanted to be. In my mind, having a wedding band would signify I was married and since I do not wear much jewelry anyway what on earth would I do with two rings? On top of that, I thought it was a beautiful sacrifice I was willing to make for our newly forming family—if nothing else, it showed that expensive things were not what I wanted out of this relationship. Am I reminded each and every day when I wear one of these rings (admittedly I typically do not wear them around the house on weekends) of Paul’s love, our commitment, and our relationship? Absolutely. But personally, I get the same reminder from seeing Paul, talking with him, running through memories in my head, perusing our photos, working around our home, and anything else in our lives.

Paul had a different reaction all together, much like Todd’s reaction on Downsized. To Paul, this ring encapsulates his love, devotion, and commitment to me. Even though it is just an object, it is an emotional symbol for him that holds much more than a stone. My willing to sell it made his heart hurt. Paul and I are both reading the book The 5 Love Languages, and gift giving happens to be one of the languages in which some people primarily express their love for others, or primarily receive love from others. I do not think this is Paul’s primary love language, but gift giving and receiving certainly holds emotional value for him. Wedding rings in particular hold a lot of sentimental value for almost everyone—including myself. They are written into most wedding ceremonies, forever symbolizing love and commitment towards one another. They are so symbolic that when a marriage is on the rocks or towards its end you oftentimes see the person stop wearing the ring all together or wear it on another finger.

We never ended up selling the ring. I am glad that we did not have to or that we chose not to, as it still holds sentimental value to me and will continue to do so until the day I die. Yet I would still be willing to sell it if a situation arose where the sacrifice was needed, and I could do it without questioning our relationship, our future, or our devotion to one another.

I would love to open this up for discussion from everyone here. What does an engagement ring/wedding ring mean to you? What sort of emotional values are tied with yours? Have you sold your engagement ring/wedding band in the past? Would you consider doing so in the future if put into a bad financial situation, or even if just wanting to secure a better future for you and your family?  If you are divorced, did you sell your wedding rings from your previous marriage/relationship or did you keep them?

About a year and a half ago I received two notices from courts for class action lawsuits. One was for Lifelock and one was for H&R Block. In both cases the reason for the class action lawsuit was because these companies had failed to disclose all of the fees involved in the services I had used. I was no longer using either of these services at the time of receiving these notices, but I remembered my experience with each. During my first year out of college and my first year of full-time employment I decided to use a coupon I had received for H&R Block to get my taxes done because I did not understand taxes very much at the time. The woman who helped me told me that if I were to open a traditional IRA for $2500 I would get back roughly $825. It seemed like a good idea to me at the time (when does $825 not seem like a good idea?) so I opened an express IRA through their company. Later as I researched and became much more interested in retirement accounts I rolled this over to a Roth IRA with Vanguard. Lifeguard’s services I had used over the course of several months in order to monitor my credit.

I had filled out these types of things in the past and had never seen any results from it. Still, it would only take a few minutes of my time to fill these forms out and I reasoned that I didn’t have to show up in court (that I knew of from reading the information), and there was potential for gain. In other words, I decided it was worth my time. Lo and behold, about six months later, I received two checks in the mail: $103.82 from H&R Block, and $10 from Lifelock!

After this occurred I was interested in learning about other class action lawsuits and their settlements. Below are some that I found in my research.

• Washington Mutual: The allegations are that the bank secretly lowered lending standards, artificially inflated home-price appraisals and failed to disclose its deteriorating financial condition as the loans failed. In the $208.5 million settlement, Washington Mutual will pay $105 million in payments on behalf of the individual defendants, $85 million from the underwriters, and $18.5 million from Deloitte & Touche LLP.
• Express Scripts Inc.: This company allegedly misled consumers when it encouraged doctors to switch patients’ cholesterol drug brands under the guise of saving patients and their health plans money. In actuality, they wanted to promote certain cholesterol prescriptions drugs in order to benefit their company. For the settlement, Express Scripts Inc. agreed to pay $9.3 million to Pennsylvania and 28 other states to resolve claims of deceptive business practices, as well as to reimburse patients up to $25 each to cover the costs of needing to revisit their doctors to change cholesterol medications.
• Verizon Wireless: It was alleged that Verizon illegally charged data sessions and internet use when phones were not in use, or when customers mistakenly pushed a button that was pre-programmed to instantly activate the phone’s Web browser (this happens to me about once a month). Verizon settled by refunding approximately $90 million to 15 million cell phone users. Refunds of between $2-$6 were given to the customers (by check if they were no longer customers, or by bill credits).
• CitiMortgage Lender Placed Insurance:  In the Superior Court for the State of California it was alleged that CitiMortgage allowed the assessment of excessive premiums in its lender placed insurance (“LPI”) program on California properties. CitiMortgage agreed to pay a total sum not to exceed $2,000,000 for settlement class members making valid claims, attorneys’ fees, costs and an incentive award to Plaintiff. The settlement allowed for each class member to make a claim of up to $95, which had to have been postmarked by February 12, 2011.

I don’t think you will get rich off of class action lawsuits by any means, but it could be worth your time to fill out the paperwork. If you are interested in keeping up with class action lawsuits you can check out this website where you can find details on pending ones as well as whether or not you may be eligible.

Have you ever received part of a settlement from a class action lawsuit? 

Mystery Shopping is one of those things that have intrigued me for years. The first time I heard the phrase was back in college from my aunt who works in marketing. She matter-of-factly threw into a conversation that companies pay people to shop. Woah—hold the phone. Wouldn’t anyone be intrigued by that? All kinds of images surrounding the phrase popped into my head in the next several years, mainly ones of super-savvy women with large-brimmed hats and hands full of shopping bags from a hard days’ work like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. While I am not particularly fond of shopping or malls, I do get the itch every so often and I thought I could certainly give it the old college try if someone was going to pay me for it.

Mystery Shopping came into my life again just this year when my friend at work suggested that I try it out. She enticed me with the phrase, “I have not paid for an oil change in the last 5 years.” My eyes widened at the thought of all the wasted money I had spent on oil changes for my cars when all along there had been someone out there who wanted to pay it for me. I quickly calculated that it would save me around $120 per year with just my car, and approximately $240 per year for both of our cars.

Still, I did not sign up right away because there was something holding me back. It wasn’t the slightly deceptive persona I would have to play if I took on a mystery shopping job, but more like a mental block against it because the websites for mystery shopping seemed so involved and questionable. It didn’t help either that the whole concept of Mystery Shopping, while intriguing, sort of screamed scam to me. But now I had a close friend who had successfully performed many of these jobs and was willing to coach me a bit. She also gave me a lead on an oil change shop, a last minute one that a representative from the company was dying to find someone for. I decided I needed to give it a try, so I filled out my information and volunteered.

The Shop

I pulled up to the oil change shop, having reread the detailed instructions twice before glancing around the outside at the appearance of the building and mentally taking note of what to include in my report. Different jobs are interested in different details—it is very important to read the guidelines and instructions for each shop—and this one in particular was concerned with the outside appearance, the clothing of the employees, and whether or not certain products were pitched/offered to me. You are given a certain range of dates to schedule your shop for, and I scheduled mine for the Friday morning when the unfortunate and devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. There was a television provided for customers in the waiting area and everyone in the room was glued to it from their respective areas, including myself. As I walked up to the man behind the counter I took note that the waiting room was clean (check), and that there was a coffee area (check). The person who helped me was dressed professionally (check), but unfortunately his manager was in jeans (ding). Halfway through the oil change I casually went into the restroom, staying a few moments to pretend as if I was actually using it and instead taking note of the dingy and disgusting looking sink (ding). Fortunately it appeared to be clean, just stained from oiled hands (check). By the end of the oil change, the man had struck up a few tactful conversations with me (check) and I was mentally pleading that he offer me what he was supposed to because I wanted to give him good marks on the paperwork. He failed to do so.

Afterwards

For the company that I used (Intelli Shop), you have to submit your documentation and fill out the report within 24 hours from the actual job, which is a good idea since you cannot use your cell phone or write down notes during the job (you don’t want to tip anyone off that you are a mystery shopper). Since this was my first report it took me an estimated two hours because I wanted to make it perfect in order to receive a high score (the higher your score, the better the shops you will be offered). In the two months since, I received an 8 out of 10 (I was dinged because they had trouble viewing my scanned copies of receipts and I had to send them everything again through email), and I received reimbursement to my Paypal account (for this shop you are reimbursed for the oil change, but not paid on top of that).

In the last few months I have received several dud emails to mystery shop such as computer shops, a few clothing stores, and ones over the phone. I call them duds because they only offered a measly $12 for my time and efforts, and I would not get to keep what I purchase. There has been one shop in particular I tried for without success—a day at a local country club golfing and eating with all expenses paid. Still, I am quite happy at the thought of free oil changes for both of our vehicles for the next umpteen years in exchange for my super-sleuth skills and observations. In fact, I all ready completed another oil change shop for our truck, making my total reimbursements around $60.

Have you had any experiences with mystery shopping? What company do you use (if you were happy), and how did it go?

After moving into our first home Paul thought we had scored the jackpot: the previous owners left their kegerator in the garage for our enjoyment. It had been fashioned out of an old refrigerator, and even bore a painted stencil of the logo from Paul’s favorite football team (the Texans). Unfortunately for us, it had not been used in such a long time that the product inside the keg was ruined, the tubing was moldy, and the refrigerator itself only worked when it was cranked up on the highest number (9). In other words, we needed to get rid of our newly found treasure, and seeing how it was an energy-guzzler, we needed to do it as soon as possible.

We did not have a truck at the time so I was very happy to find out that there was a company who was not only willing to come and pick the kegerator up from our home, but would also pay us $25 for doing so! It was a win-win situation as the kegerator was no longer our headache, we earned $25, and this company could recycle the parts for a profit.

If you have old appliances you need to get rid of, there are several ways to do so where you can earn money in the process like we did. Read below to find out how you can extract value out of your old working or non-working appliances.

• Donate for a Tax Break: If the appliance is in a usable condition, you can donate it and take a tax deduction (if you itemize your taxes). Some places will pick the item up from you, while others you will need to drop it off. Also, don’t forget to ask for a donation receipt if you plan to take a tax deduction.
• Sell the Appliance: Once again, if the appliance is still in a usable condition you can sell it on Craigslist or through a local pamphlet/ad for a small amount (depending on the condition and age). This option is good for those that do not have a way to transport the appliance as the person can come and pick it up as part of the transaction. Also call your local used appliance shops and see if they will purchase the appliance from you.
• Sell the Parts: Repair shops may be looking for some of the parts in your appliance. Call around to repair shops and local appliance technicians to see if there is interest. You will probably have to bring the parts in for an appraisal.
• Scrap the Metal: If the appliance cannot be used or fixed, you can scrap it for the metal. Scrap metal is actually quite lucrative right now; the shop that we use has doubled their paying price from one year ago.

Have you had luck in getting paid to get rid of your old appliances?

Craigslist is a staple service in a frugal lifestyle. I love to purchase and sell things using this free service. eBay essentially does the same thing as Craigslist—allowing you to sell or purchase used (and sometimes new) items from others—but there are fees involved.

What are some things about it that are better than using eBay? For one, you are not charged a fee to list what you want to sell, nor a percentage of your profits for selling. There is no shipping fee tacked onto a great find because you pick the item up yourself, and finally, you can find other things on Craigslist that you cannot find on eBay, such as money-making opportunities (research studies, jobs, etc.), or groups of people with common interests.

Here are some great things that I have gotten from Craigslist over the last year:

1. Free Dresser: This lasted us the year that we lived in an apartment, and when we moved into our new home, we posted it back on Craigslist for free and gave it away. We did not need to purchase a new dresser when we purchased our home because of ample closet and storage space.
2. Double Cast Iron Sink: This is for our laundry room renovation—Paul and I both love cast iron sinks, which typically run several hundred dollars. The price I bought it for was $80, and it is in excellent condition.
3. Research Study: Right now I am taking part in a research study that will yield me a $75 Amazon.com gift card.
4. Wooden Buffet: We needed a place to store some dishes and Tupperware in our apartment, and so we found a beautiful buffet for just $75 in great condition. It is now in our formal dining room in our new home.

Here are some items that I have sold on Craigslist over the last year:

1. Television: $250
2. Television: $30
3. Laptop Bag: $10
4. Chocolate Fondue Fountain: $15
5. Guitar Hero: $50
6. Proactiv Formula: $20

If I had sold the above items on eBay, I would be out $27.75 or roughly 7.5% of my profit due to insertion and selling fees assessed by eBay. Check out the fee schedule here for more information.

Having stated my strong case for Craigslist, sometimes it certainly pays off to purchase and sell things on eBay instead, such as when security issues are a concern, or you need a larger audience to find the right buyer, or to sell your item. Check out my new eHow article for more information on how to decide when to use Craigslist versus when to use eBay when buying or selling items.

What is your preference: Craigslist, or eBay? What are some great items you have found/sold using these services?

Happy Friday Everyone!

Today I thought we’d do something a little differently. I was approached from the author of GarageSalesTracker website to publish a short post on garage sales. In honor of that, I’d love to hear about the best item or worst item you have ever found at a garage sale, and what you paid for it, or what it was on sale for (if you remember).

My Garage Sale Confession

The best item I bought at a garage sale was my magenta-colored reading chair for $10. Woohoo! The worst item I have ever seen on sale at a garage sale was used pillows…that were stained…with God knows what…I don’t even remember what they were on sale for, but trust me, they were not a bargain.

Leave a comment with your own great and horrible finds–I’d love to hear them. Happy Hunting everyone!

GarageSalesTracker Guest Post

When the weekend hits, most non-frugalites start off by going to happy hour before hitting the stores to blow their entire paycheck on a spending spree.

Nowadays folks have to be a little bit more cautious as we have witnessed the un-witness able in the past year and a half. So how do we do that?

The weekend has turned into a bargain hunters dream. With garage sales flooding the market more so than ever before due to families fighting off foreclosures and all of the accumulated household items of the past few years are being offered for pennies on the dollar.

CNN just recently broke a story on recession busters and how a Midwest woman has turned her hobby of hitting the weekend yard sales into a career which profits her over a thousand dollars a month from buying valuable items at cheap prices and than re-selling them online. Here’s another story of a woman who supplements her income with purchasing things at garage sales and re-selling them.

If your mission isn’t to make money from these sales no need to worry the family can still benefit tremendously from large discounts on baby clothes, toys, books, electronics, antiques, and jewelry. No, matter what your need is there’s always a hidden treasure out there waiting for you.

October is here, and it’s time to update my honeymoon savings goal! If you remember, I started off with $779 at the beginning of September. Now we are at $931. Here is the breakdown:

• $10 from a gas rebate
• $30 from another rebate (although I cannot remember what this check was for!
• $75 from our engagement party
• $27 from SendEarnings (finally!)
• $10 from Natural Dentist rebate

All in all we added another $152.00 to our goal. How did you do?

Imagine walking into an interview for that next big position you are hoping for. You are dressed for the occasion—some dockers, a nice blouse, perhaps a business suit that you spent a few dollars on at the dry cleaners after lugging it out from the recesses of your closet—and your resume is simply radiant from the hours of work you have put into it over the last few weeks.

So far everything is going well; the interviewer has asked you an assortment of slightly uncomfortable, but appropriate, questions, and you feel satisfied with the answers you have given. Now comes the part that matters the most, and quite frankly makes your palms a little sweaty. The company is prepared to offer you a job. As you sit there in anticipation, figures are jumping through your head, and you wonder whether or not you will finally be able to afford that new car, that sneaker purchase you have been putting off until you found employment, paying back your student loans, buying a house, etc. The offer comes in: $4.86 per hour. Hold the phone.

I would never accept a job that offered me such a lowball figure, even if it was to flip burgers (which I am not above doing, but as of July 24, 2009 even people working in McDonald’s now earn a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour).  I assume that many of you would not either.

But what about if you were working for this kind of pay without knowing it? Case in point: my one year spent on SendEarnings.com. This is a website where you earn money for reading emails. You sign up for an account that is automatically credited with $5 to begin with. Once you reach the point of $30.00, you can fill out a little online form to claim your check. Sounds good, right? I all ready read many worthless emails everyday by accident, so why not get paid for it?

Well, it turns out that you only make $0.02 per email. This means you would have to read 1500 emails before getting your paycheck. It took me from around August 2008 through July 2009 to reach this point. True, I could have quit halfway through the year when I realized what a waste of time this was, but by then I was up to $17 or so, and was so close to that $30 nugget that I couldn’t quit and lose all of the time I had already invested into this.

Here’s how it worked out for me (notice that I only had to read 1000 emails; this is because during my membership I received an email for a product that I had wanted to buy already, regardless of the advertisement, so I earned $10 through SendEarnings by doing this):

Not only did it take almost an entire year, and 5 hours of my life to do this, but the check will not be issued until September 1, 2009, and if my account goes dormant between now and then (which is to say, I stop reading future emails over the next month and a half), then they will not issue the check at all. I feel like I am being held ransom…

My point in writing this is that sometimes something looks like a good deal (who wouldn’t want a free $30.00?), but if you do the calculations and figure out the time investment you will be putting into it, it really is not. The older I get, the more I value my time, and I am quite sure that I am worth more than $4.86 per hour.

How much are you worth?

I have to say…not much. From the beginning of July until the end, I managed to find $0.14. Here is the breakdown: one dime and four pennies.

I have to say, I think there is a lot of competition here. There seem to be a decent amount of homeless people in certain areas of Houston, and any change shining on a sidewalk would be better spent by them anyhow. I also did not get a chance to go to the laundromat to try and find loose change that people have dropped (and come to think of it, moving a vending machine or two probably would have helped as well).

Let me know if you all have any luck. One of our readers managed to find a $20 bill!