The Christmas Experiment

I have been in the process of writing this post for a couple of days, but I keep being distracted by the kids and the weather.   We are definitely in winter where I live  In the last 48-72 hours we have had a power outage, my car doors have been frozen shut, we had a snow day,  then got 5 more  inches of snow, and very long, yucky commute to school when they did not call a 2nd snow day. How much longer until Spring?  

Now that is is January, and we are only a few weeks past Christmas, it is the perfect time to introduce my new series the Christmas Experiment. For several years I have made a little bit of side money doing surveys, reading emails, and using shopping apps.  I want to see how much money I can save for next Christmas spending just a couple of minutes a day doing a couple of fun, simple tasks.  My goal is to pay for our entire Christmas with my earnings. Each month I will share how much I have earned, and my failures and successes.  I am going to share with you the sites I am using, so you can follow along and also earn some money as well.  Some of these links are affiliate links.  Everyone of them, though, I have used myself, and  feel that are a great sites/apps to use.  

Surveys

Opinion Outpost  is one of my favorite survey sites. I have belonged to the site for several years and have earned over $100.  I currently have a balance just a little over $20.  One this site you earn points that can me redeemed for cash, gifts cards, and more.  You can cash out at $10 for paypal and $5 for gift cards. 

I have used Toluna in the past and really liked it.  I have not used it recently, but plan to start again. On this site you also earn cash and gift cards for doing surveys.  My current balance is $0. 

Pinecone Research is another great site to use for surveys.  I currently do not have a link for this site as they are not taking new members at this time.  They do, though, frequently, and when they do I will be sharing the info.  You earn $3 per survey, and I usually make $12 to $15 a month.   I just cashed out some money, so my current balance is $6.  They pay in cash and gift cards. 

I am just starting out on another survey site that I want to try out before recommending.  I will be adding it to the list if I think it is worth sharing. My current balance on that site $0. 

Reading Emails 

I am actually making some decent money with Inbox Dollars and it's sister site Inbox Pays. Each day they send you a couple of email ads and pay you to open them. You do not have to buy anything or do anything with the ad.  Inbox Dollars pays 2 cents an email and Inbox Pays 5 cents It literally only takes a minute or two a day.   There are surveys you can take on the site you want to earn more even quicker.  I currently have balances of $12.45 on Inbox Dollars and $23.41 on Inbox Pays  Inbox Pays are more offers you can take if you find one interesting, but it is definitely not require to take any of them to earn money. 

Send Earnings  is just like Inbox Dollars. I have used it in the past,  and liked it. I stopped keeping up with it when I got too busy.  I am going to start it up again now that I have a mission to earn money for Christmas. 

Swagbucks I love Swagbucks!  You earn money just for looking up things you normally do, entering bonus codes and watching videos.  Many people love this site because of how quickly you can earn Amazon gift cards. My current balance is $13.36

Shopping Apps 

By now everyone has probably heard of Ibotta . It is my favorite of the shopping apps.  It pays you for shopping. Seriously, it really does!  It has hundreds of stores through the app, and it will pay you if you buy any of the current featured products.  I have earned over $100 from this site, and currently have a balance of $28.35.  They are adding new stores, restaurants, and other places like movie theaters all the time.  Currently if you sign up now here, you will get $10 when you redeem your first rebate. 

CheckOut 51 is also a great site to use. You can redeem rebates from any store, and is not store specific like Ibotta.  I always items from Aldi that I can redeem on this site.  My current balance is $25.86

My Starting Balance 

I just added up my current balances and it looks like I am at a good start for the year.  I currently have $129.53 already earned that I have not redeemed yet.  This makes me excited to see how much I can actually earn by the end of the year.  I hope you follow along with this experiment and make you own money as well.