How to Use Credit Cards to Get Out of Debt
Many financial gurus will tell you to avoid credit cards, even those that offer incentives. I totally get where they’re coming from, BUT credit cards can be a great way to help you actually get OUT of debt!
How to Find Extra Income Ideas
Finding legit ways to make extra money can be tricky, but it’s important if you’re on a mission to get out of debt. That’s why today we’re going to go over the extra income ideas I used to pay down $10,000 in two months!
Building Additional Income Streams: How I Made $2,168.47 Working From Home
Look for “passive income” or “make money from home” and you’ll be inundated with get rich quick schemes and work from home scams. Don’t fall for it! There are ways to build additional income streams and none of them should cost you money upfront.
As someone who has to spend over 60% of her take home pay on daycare, finding ways to make extra money from home is extremely important.
(Update: I’ve since quit my job to run my blog from home full time!!!!)
Disclosures: The links in this post may contain referral links through which I may receive some sort of compensation. This in no way affects your use of the company. This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. I believe in honesty of relationship, opinion, and identity. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. I only endorse products or services that I believe are worthy of such an endorsement.
Building Additional Income Streams
If you’re like me, you have no time waste. Literally. You brush your teeth while combing your son’s hair and you pack lunches while putting on your pants. Thank goodness for automated coffee pots. With not a second to spare, you want to make sure that whatever additional income you bring in is actually worth your time.
First, you need to evaluate when and how you’ll be working to build this extra income. If you want something to do while you’re just watching TV for a couple hours each night, then earning $4/hour from Amazon MTurk will leave you with $8 more than you’d have if you’d only watched TV.
$8 is great. $8 is hopefully more than you spend on TV each month. But $8 is still only $8.
As someone who is constantly multitasking (I swear, I even do it in my dreams!) I need to make more than $8 to consider something worth my time.
Survey Sites That Actually Pay
There are many different sites available through which you can earn money by completing surveys but I’ll be honest – 95% of them are a huge waste of your time. SurveySavvy is by far the best survey site, making me on average over $15/hour, and I love it so much I wrote a whole separate article about them – check out the SurveySavvy review! (Oct. 2020 Update: My latest check was for over $200!!)
InboxDollars is also great because they offer you a multitude of ways to make money online that don’t necessarily require a lot of time or effort. If you’ve read my InboxDollars Review, you know you can make at least $50 in less than one hour. Beyond that, you can also make money by clipping and using their coupons, doing online searches, completing surveys, and more!
Freelance
Whether you’re looking to turn freelancing into your full-time gig or you just need a little extra spending money, sign up for Upwork. Not only can you search for jobs that fit what you’re looking for, you may also be offered random opportunities that fit your schedule. I once made $25 in 20 minutes by doing some voice work. I have zero experience in it, but was offered the opportunity by a company doing vocal research.
Do you have a unique talent to showcase? Fiverr is another great site to market your skills and/or products. Whether it’s graphic design, social media marketing, or a physical product, Fiverr is definitely a great way to make money and is also a great platform to buy from
Write for Textbroker
If you can write fairly well, you need to apply for Textbroker. You will fill out some basic information and then provide a short writing sample. Do not make the same mistake I did – give them your best work! Within a few days, you will receive a grade of 2-5 stars on your sample; the real money begins at the 4 star mark, though there is still some earning potential at the 3 star level. If you receive less than a 4, you will be reevaluated after 5 submissions and your rating will be adjusted accordingly. I typically average about $15-$20 per article and have made nearly $800 in the last three months. You can read more about how I’ve made over $1,400 from Textbroker in this Textbroker review..
Get Paid to Lose Weight
Are you planning to lose a few pounds any time soon? Check out DietBet! DietBet provides amazing motivation by holding you accountable for your weight loss. There are three different ways to play, depending on where you’re at with your weight loss goals. Thus far I’ve done lose 4% in 4 weeks, but I plan to try for a bigger goal (10% in 6 months) very soon!
I’ve only won $34 from the two games I’ve played but still – $34 for something I wanted/needed to do anyway! Not too shabby!
I’ve also heard good things about HealthyWage.com but I have not yet personally tried it out.
*Update* – I’ve since tried out HealthyWage and I won $1,600 in December after losing 70lbs, and I’ve already got a guest post up from someone who won nearly $700 after dropping 50lbs!! Check out this HealthyWage review!
Do Closed Captioning Work
Rev.com is an online transcription and captioning company. If you can type quickly, I recommend applying. You won’t make a ton of money unless you’re a professional transcriptionist who uses a stenotype. I can type about 98 wpm and I’ve never made more than $7 per working hour with Rev. With that said, though, I very much enjoy the work and that can make all the difference. Thus far I’ve made enough to pay for my Netflix/Hulu subscriptions for the year!
Save Money Shopping Online
If you have not yet signed up for Rakuten, please do so now. Like right this second. Not that I want you to stop reading but I can’t tell you how much I regret having not done so myself sooner, especially with how much shopping I do online. Since August, I have earned $2,608.12 just from my shopping trips.
If you’re unfamiliar, Rakuten is now the new name for Ebates.
Insiders tip
You can use Rakuten even for things you need TODAY! How? By going through Rakuten to purchase things for in-store pickup. We do this a lot when we need things from Lowes – not only do we get a percentage back from our Lowes purchase but the shopping trip went from an hour long ordeal to a five minute stop!
Check out how to earn even more with Rakuten for more insight into how I’ve made over $1,000!
Declutter
Hold a garage sale or sell via Facebook Resale Groups! After I spent a couple days thoroughly decluttering my house, I was able to list and resell a lot of my stuff for a whopping $680 and I still have more to sell! I plan to hold a garage sale this summer to sell whatever is left. My garage sales are typically fairly successful and I often make upwards of $500.
It all adds up in time, just keep at it and be sure to follow us on Facebook for more ideas to help you lead a richer life!
SurveySavvy Review
What if I told you I’ve found a survey site that is actually signing up for? Better yet – what if I told you I’ve found a survey site that can earn you hundreds without wasting your time? It’s SurveySavvy! (more…)
Is instaGC as Instant as Implied?
Is InstaGC worth my time or just another scam survey site? Let’s discuss…
As you hopefully already know, I wrote about how to make money via InboxDollars. In just about an hour, I made over $50 with minimal effort. $50 might not be much, but to me it’s this month’s internet bill. Recently, though, I came across a site promising instant money. INSTANT money? I have to see it to believe it…
Disclosure: The links in this post may contain affiliate links through which I can receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you make a purchase after clicking on my link.
I decided to try out instaGC today, this site that will supposedly provide instant money in the form of gift cards. When I originally signed up, I’ll be in honest in that I never did anything beyond that initial sign-up as it seemed intimidating and I wasn’t sure it’d be worth it.
InstaGC Review
Once I dove into it, though, it turned out to be quite worth it!
Here’s the breakdown of my first actual experience with it:
InstaGC Surveys
I do enjoy the fact that these surveys seem to at least give you a preview into what they’re looking for. Little annoys me more than spending 15 minutes on a “pre-survey” only to find out I don’t qualify and have wasted my time. After just under 15 minutes, I made $7. Okay so maybe it’s not INSTANT money, but that’s a pretty nice figure for just 15 minutes. Of the four surveys I attempted, I only failed to qualify for one. Compared to other survey companies I’ve dealt with, this is fantastic. I’m usually lucky to qualify for one out of four, not the other way around!
InstaGC Videos – a Waste of Time?
Watching the videos definitely isn’t worth it (looking at maybe 1 cent for every 20 minutes – yikes!) but if you’re bored and just surfing around anyway, then checking these out might work for you.
I also checked out the Facebook subcategory and completed 6 offers for a total of .08 cents in about 30 seconds. That doesn’t sound like much but if I could do that consistently, it’d be nearly $10/hour.
I toyed around with some of the other avenues (including creating this review post) and there’s definite potential with this site.
InstaGC Referrals
Once you get the hang of InstaGC, it’s time to start referring your friends! You’ll get .10/referral and 10% of their earnings. This is a great way to add to the growing pot of pennies without any extra work on your part.
Is it Legit? Or a Scam?
What it all boils down to is figuring out exactly what’s worth the time versus what to skip.
I would certainly recommend at least signing up for instaGC and checking it out for yourself. The ticker on the side of the site seems to offer further insight into what’s working for the general population and what’s not. Also, make sure you “like” them on Facebook so you don’t miss the bonus points they offer quite frequently!
Like I said, it may not be instant money, but I can see some decent earning potential and the best part – you can do it in your pajamas while your kids eat breakfast!
Have you tried out instaGC before? What are your thoughts?