If you remember over the Black Friday weekend we shared with you a great offer from ING – they were offering you $107 just for trying their Electric Orange Account.  We know many of you shared with us how excited you were to try them, especially as they do not have bank fees, a minimum balance or overdraft fees.  But if you forgot, you needed to make five separate purchases (either signature or PIN-based) using your Electric Orange Card within 45 days of opening your account to receive the $107 bonus.

We wanted to share with you some quick and easy ways you can make your five qualified purchases if you haven’t done so yet:

• Purchase a Kindle book – Need a book to read?  Purchase a Kindle book, sit back and relax and enjoy your day!
• Download an MP3 from Amazon – If you’ve been looking for a specific song or album, time is a great time to do it!  As the songs are less than $1 this will give you a chance to make a purchase for less.
• Rent a Movie from Amazon Instant Video starting at $0.99 – Another quick idea that doesn’t require shipping or leaving your home is to rent a movie from Amazon.  The nice thing about this option is you can make your rental purchase now and then you have 30 days to complete watching this 24-hour rental.
• Head to a local store and make a few small purchases.  Obviously this requires you to leave your home. 

You need to ensure you make 5 separate purchases (not five items in one order) to qualify for this promotion.

Did you miss the offer over Black Friday?  No worries as ING Direct is offering you a $50 bonus right now just for trying their account and services!

To sign up for your Electric Orange Account:

1. Click over to ING, select the option for an Electric Orange Account HERE
2. Follow the process to sign up (it originally took us about 5 minutes)
3. Make a total of 3 purchases (either signature or PIN-based) using your Electric Orange Card or Person2Person Payments (or any combination of the two) within 45 days.

Your $50 bonus will be automatically deposited into your account on day 50.

Earn a $50 bonus when you open an Electric Orange℠ checking account from ING DIRECT. Free ATMs and no overdraft fees.

This is an AWESOME new survey company called Mommy Talks! We posted about this in November for those of you looking to make a little extra income from home.  At that time, I registered for this myself and it took my about 3 minutes to register for a new account. And just by registering – I received $5 cash! These are surveys geared towards moms about products for moms and babies.

Even better is that they have a super slick survey taking-and-reward system – better than any we have ever seen from a survey company! They have a chart showing you how many surveys are available for you to take, how long they will take and the actual cash amount you will receive for taking it! This is a great opportunity to make a little extra cash too!

Here’s a screen shot of some of the surveys available to me today after registering for a new account! I actually had 64 that I could take!

You can see from the chart from my account, with a survey or two a day, at the end of each month – you could get a nice check!

In addition, I receive a daily email with an opportunity for a survey that day (other than logging in and choosing more to do that day if I wanted) and the email looks like this:

What I love about this is that they are clear about approximately how long this survey will take and then the reward I will get for taking this survey.  In this case, it is $2.50 cash for a 10 minute survey.  That is not too bad of a way to spend 10 minutes.  If you did something like this once a day, you can literally have a goal to pay a bill or two or to even bank the money for a family financial goal that you are working towards.

IMPORTANT: To get your $5 bonus – your account will show a $0.00 balance after registering.  But just hop on over to the email account that you registered with and click on the email to confirm – you will not get your $5 until they can confirm who you say you are.  It will look like this in your email:

Then once you click on through in your email, then your account balance will show the $5 and then start taking surveys to earn more!!

We are not sure how long they will be offering the $5 bonus – so take a few minutes and get registered for your $5.  Then log-in whenever you would like to make a bit of cash!

Head to the Mommy Talks site through this link HERE for your $5 bonus

See our master list of Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting

Check out how you can get paid for your opinion as today’s money making highlight that is available right now for you to utilize to bring in a little extra (even every month if you take surveys each month!).  This is one that you can do from home in with just a few minutes a day! Survey companies that conduct market research are a popular way to earn a bit from home as brands and manufacturer’s are wanting to know which direction they should go with their products or services and they are willing to pay people to tell them their thoughts.

You can make cash from survey companies and the one we are featuring today is Synovate surveys.  This is a popular one that fills up fast when the registration is open.

Here’s information from Synovate about their program that is open for enrollment right now to the first 350 for this round of applications:

We value your opinions. In fact, when you share your thoughts, we’ll give you reward points redeemable for checks or vouchers! Vouchers give you online or store credit to one of the many top retailers offered in our online store.

Every survey invitation you get says how many reward points you could earn by completing it. All you have to do is participate in surveys to bank reward points. It’s that easy! Once you have at least 5,000 points, redeem them for vouchers or checks Remember: The more surveys you participate in, the more points you can earn!

I, Cassie, have done a handful of survey options in the past.  Most do offer a rewards system that you can either redeem for prizes or even better – CASH (in the form of a check ) like Synovate.  With consistency, you could receive a regular $20, $40, $50 etc. or so check each month.  We like to think of the survey type jobs in these terms: “what bill could job opportunity cover to make it more realistic for us to complete?” How would an extra $20, $40 or $50 a month affect your goal?  Now you cannot make a living off of doing surveys and nor will you get rich – but it is a way to earn just a little more to get to your goal a little faster.

To join Synovate, just head to their site here to apply. The application process includes a handful of questions regarding gender, age, household size, etc. so that you can be matched with the right surveys. Then you will receive email notification of your application status and then start earning and covering a bill each month! Please note: You will need to confirm your application from your email to get started. So get paid for your opinion while this round of applications is open!

PLUS it looks like you may also receive a $5 bonus for joining right now.

See our master list of Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting

Thanks A Proverb’s Wife

Have you seen this little piggy?  Just a little bit ago we opened our email and found in it another announcement of the upcoming 2012 Family Economics conference in Chicago just a couple of short months away!  If you remember from when we first announced this conference, we shared that it was at the first annual Family Economics conference that we really solidified our vision for my leaving the corporate world and coming home to work with my family in many of our business ventures.  We would have never dreamed that just two short years later we would have been asked to come to the conference to share practical ways and tips to help families save money and stretch their budgets in every area of life!

So let us help you by piggy-backing off the great tips that Generations with Vision already shared by sharing them with you and adding a couple of our own!

#1. Start following our site and learning all the great tips and money-saving advice now (before the conference)!

So first, if you are new to our site we want to wish you a warm welcome!  But we don’t want you to just wait for the conference to get some great tips and advice.  We want you to start saving now to help get you to the conference for less!  We wouldn’t be The Thrifty Couple if we didn’t share with you tips now on how to do it for less and start saving money now.

We invite you to join our fun community on Facebook where you get links to the latest on our site – but even more so, you can join in on the discussions!  We love our community and LOVE the comments!  Plus we post exclusive deals, coupons and samples on Facebook so make sure to like us to get it all!

Join the Discussion on Facebook

Plus, don’t miss out on our daily newsletter where you get all our tips, deals and articles in one place! Just click HERE to start your FREE subscription! Please confirm your subscription (a confirmation email will be sent to you that you will need to click through to confirm that you would like to receive emails from us)!

#2. Make sure to register and use promotion code ThriftyCouple to save you $20 off your registration!

We love saving money here and wouldn’t be consistent unless we shared with you how to save on your registration for the conference!  As we mention above, simply click here to go to the conference site, and when you sign up use code ThriftyCouple to sign up!

#3. Write about it on your own blog and get a discount!

Do you have your own family blog?  Generations with Vision is offering you $25 off your family registration or $5 off your personal registration just for sharing on your blog (let us know if you do so we can get you in contact with the right person to get your discount)!  Of course, we would love it if you mentioned that you can’t wait to meet us, but with the awesome lineup of speakers we understand if you don’t. 

#4. Check out many of our tips on how to save on your road trip to Chicago including the drive, accommodations and food!

Two years ago we shared a number of articles on how to save on your many stages of a road trip:

• Make sure to prepare your vehicle for the trip.  Its not much fun to be stuck on the side of the road (not to mention not thrifty with cost of tow truck and small town mechanic).  Besides, you don’t want to miss the first day of the conference!
• We share some great tips on the actual drive itself!  From setting a budget to the food on the trip you will want to read this.  We even have a small section to prevent everyone in the car from going crazy with some ideas for in-car activities too! And yes, the little picture of our daughter eating her french fry was on our way to the Family Economics conference back in 2010!
• Even though we all know the price of gas is astronomical, if you have a family (and a large one at that) you know the cost of lodging can be through the roof!  Make sure to check out our list of tips and tricks to help reduce the cost of motel or hotel as well!
• Before you read this next part and just close the browser claiming we don’t know what we’re talk about we ask you to read it in full – stay at a timeshare or condo!  We share tips (not on buying a timeshare) but how to get those empty and overflow condos for much less!

So although you could hitchhike (you can see that tip in the original email), we really encourage you to check out these tips first! 

We invite you to come, gain a vision for your own family and meet with a large number of families doing the same!

Don’t forget to see our original post announcing the 2012 Family Economics conference for more details about the conference!

With a new year upon us, its time to get back to normal life and make plans for your family’s budget and financial goals for 2012.  What if you could quickly and easily do something now to give your family an extra $600 this year alone? (based on the average spending for an American household)  What if the additional effort needed is by paying your everyday bills and expenses with a new card (a debit card of course)?!  Last year we shared with you an awesome way we earn cash back just by using our PerkStreet Financial^SM debit card – we learned about this from Dave Ramsey and after signing up (its FREE and easy to sign up) just loved how much money we earned.

Check out some great ideas on how to use your cash back:

• Effectively lower your monthly bills by paying with your cash back rewards
• Use the perks to help meet some of your new financial goals for 2012!
• Save this FREE money and use it to budget for Christmas this year (it is coming, you know )

We encourage you to check out our last post where we gave you all the details on what Perkstreet is all about.  Throughout the year we’ll be sharing tips on how we used our card with necessary expenses to help pay our “mommy and our newborn son’s” hospital bills (while earning great rewards), how we immediately apply our rewards to budgeted bills with the end result of giving us more money to save this year, and other great ways we have found to use and earn more perks!

Our last post will give you all the details, but here’s a quick summary:

• Earn 2% cash back on all non-PIN debit card purchases for 3 months (90 days)
• After 90 days, earn 2% cash back on every non-PIN purchases when your balance is $5,000 or more or earn 1% cash back for balances below $5,000. Either way, you won’t find another bank in America that gives you more rewards on debit.
• Get 5% PowerPerks at rotating monthly categories and merchants (this month on sport and athletic clubs (think New Year’s resolutions) and TurboTax (a favorite for us as well – more later!))
• No credit check. No annual fee. It’s free to get and free to use.

Click HERE to go directly to PerkStreet Financial^SM and sign up for FREE!

Click HERE to check out our last post with all the details on how you can earn $600 cash back (or more!) this year from your everyday spending!

The PerkStreet Financial^SM Debit MasterCard^® is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to license from MasterCard International Incorporated.

We are excited and honored to announce that we have been invited to speak at the upcoming third annual Family Economics Conference!  We attended the first Family Economics where we were challenged and encouraged to be even more faithful with our finances as well as establishing solid economic and financial principles with our children and as a family.  In fact, it was that conference that really helped solidify our vision to have me come home from my corporate job and work together with our family and develop our own family-based economic.  We will be sharing practical ways and tips to help families save money and stretch their budgets in every area of life!

Are you ready to take your family’s economy to the next level? Is your family ready to start a family business, but you just don’t know where to start. Get your family equipped and inspired in Chicago at the third annual Family Economics Conference on March 8-10, 2012. This exciting event features a line-up of speakers who will equip your family’s economy for long-term success, including Kevin Swanson, Doug Phillips, RC Sproul Jr., Steve and Teri Maxwell, Dave Tucker, Erik Weir, Bill Roth, Don Hart, Alex and Cassie as The Thrifty Couple (that’s us! ), and more! In addition, you’ll be encouraged by the practical wisdom in the popular Q&A panels, where you will have opportunity to interact with the speakers. Just a sample of the topics to be addressed are:

• Raising Sons to Provide
• Household Budget Management
• Marketing a Family Business
• Household Chores and Time Management
• The Duties of Dominion
• Keys to Being a Successful Family Entrepreneur
• Stories from Successful Family Start-Ups
• A Special Proverbs 31 Track for Ladies
• …and much more!

Also included in the price of registration is a family pass to the 2012 Annual Liberty Day Celebration on Saturday night after the conference (value of $59).

As a special for Thrifty Couple followers, you can save $20 off your family registration by using the coupon code ThriftyCouple when you register online. Click here to register now!

It’s time to share another idea with you to help you make some extra income this Christmas season to help you have a debt-free Christmas, pay extra bills or have an even bigger Christmas! Either way, we have the master list over 100 Ways to Earn Additional Income that we are continually adding to and highlighting topics to help you and your family find some money-making opportunities.

Today’s idea is for those of you who may have someone in the family that is an artist! Holiday Window Painting is the name of this money making idea.  We have personally known a family who does this as a regular gig in addition to their full-time jobs so that they can earn extra income.  They have stated the holiday season especially booms with clients (business owners) wanting to draw customers with fun and festive windows.  The family that does this is self-taught hobby artists and they do a great job!  They love to do it and they actually get jobs all year round as it is a fun and affordable way for businesses to utilize their window space for marketing any time of year! As always, because you are in charge of the business you can invest as much time and effort as you would like.  This could be as small as painting for a few local businesses or as involved as a full-time year-round venture.

So if this seems like something that would be fun and potentially a great way to utilize the skill-set of some of your family members, then here are some ideas to get you started.

Marketing ideas

• Paint your windows on both your home and car and place a sign in your yard offering window painting.  There is no greater advertisement than someone actually seeing your work! You could also offer to paint friends’ windows for FREE for Christmas if they are willing to put a sign up in their yard too!
• Get your listing up on your local free classifieds - This is a tried and true way to get business for FREE and you can generally post pictures to show off your work!
• Take brochures into businesses with pictures of your past work.  You can even consider providing a discount to them if they allow you to put your contact information on the window under the painting (like an artist does, but advertising your work).  Consider offering a year-round package at a discount for the commitment (if you want to make this even bigger).
• Offer incentives to your current customers.  These could range from ideas like giving them a gift card for referred customers, discounts on future window paintings for referrals, etc.  Not only are you getting word-of-mouth referrals (which are the best kind!) but you are giving them an incentive to do so and helping them reduce their overall cost of service – the more they refer, the cheaper their overall price is!
• Offer a gift card to your own network of friends and family - They may not have paid for your service, but again advertising spread by word-of-mouth can help you grow your business organically!

As far as the costs involved, it really can be a low-cost overhead type of business.  There really isn’t many items needed much more than the proper paint (which you may be able to find some great discounts on at places like Amazon and warehouses), paint brushes, window cleaning supplies and your marketing materials.

Other considerations

• Think outside of the box for how the whole family can work together - Each member of the family might offer great talents that you can use for the job.  Does one of the children have a great eye for design (e.g., our 7-year old marketer)?  Use him or her to design your marketing supplies!  Consider using some of your older children to help pick up the supplies from the store or even shop around to find a great deal on them!  If you sit down as a family you just might find some ideas that you would have never considered before.
• Taxes - This is standard on every money-making post, but make sure to discuss with your accountant how to track your costs and income to prepare your taxes.  There might be some deductible expenses (e.g., all the mileage for the work/advertising, cost of supplies, etc) that you might not initially consider as part of this business.
• Insurance - Make sure to discuss with your insurance agent and consider whether something like this is necessary for this type of work in your area.  Every business has risk involved, so it is always something to think about.

We hope some of these ideas will at least get you started in utilizing skills in the family to help generate some extra income.  We would love to hear other considerations you might have and anything else we might have missed.

Finally, we encourage you to check out our full list of over 100 ways to earn additional income!  We plan on expanding this list in the days and weeks ahead as there are some great opportunities with the holidays approaching!

Photo credit:  JJGrabber.com who looks like he is doing exactly what we are talking about

This is an AWESOME new survey company called Mommy Talks! We just saw this and I registered for this myself and it took my about 3 minutes to register for a new account. And just by registering – I received $5 cash! These are surveys geared towards moms about products for moms and babies.

Even better is that they have a super slick survey taking-and-reward system – better than any we have ever seen from a survey company! They have a chart showing you how many surveys are available for you to take, how long they will take and the actual cash amount you will receive for taking it! This is a great opportunity to make a little extra cash too!

Here’s a screen shot of some of the surveys available to me today after registering for a new account! I actually had 64 that I could take!

You can see from the chart from my account, with a survey or two a day, at the end of each month – you could get a nice check!

IMPORTANT: To get your $5 bonus – your account will show a $0.00 balance after registering.  But just hop on over to the email account that you registered with and click on the email to confirm – you will not get your $5 until they can confirm who you say you are.  It will look like this in your email:

Then once you click on through in your email, then your account balance will show the $5 and then start taking surveys to earn more!!

We are not sure how long they will be offering the $5 bonus – so take a few minutes and get registered for your $5.  Then log-in whenever you would like to make a bit of cash!

Head to the Mommy Talks site through this link HERE for your $5 bonus

See our master list of Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting

Thanks Money Saving Mom

Over the next couple of weeks we are planning on sharing some great earning ideas as part of our list of over 100 Ways to Earn Additional Income as we move into the holiday season.  As we’ve mentioned in the past, not only will finding part-time income help you meet your financial goals, but you might be able to turn some of these ideas into your main form of income.  For example, if your family has a roofing business, this could be a great opportunity to help you through those lean times when the snow is falling!

We actually know about this idea from our “transitioning days”.  What do I mean?  We actually used this service a few years ago when we were starting our transition from being deep in debt to starting to pay off our debt.  Cassie grew up loving a house beautifully decorated for Christmas so we wanted to decorate our home on a thrifty budget.  We purchased some Christmas lights on clearance and were pleased with the sale.  It was then that Cassie noticed on one of the local classified ad services that two college-aged brothers (trying to earn money so they could pay for their schooling with cash) was offering to not only put up our Christmas lights for a reasonable price, but also take them down for us as well when the spring came.  We’ll share in a different article on weighing the cost of paying someone for a service (e.g., could you realistically make more money by paying someone for a service and use the same time for your own business venture?) – which was part of our rationale at the time.  But even more so we were excited about their vision and goals of working to pay for their schooling debt-free and wanted to support them.  We hired them for the service and loved the results – they did a great job!

We wanted to share with you some ideas on how to get started (you may want to get started pretty quickly – there’s no time like the present) with some ideas you might want to consider.  As always, because you are in charge of the business you can invest as much time and effort as you would like.  This could be as small as helping a few neighbors with their lights or as involved as a full-time seasonal venture.

Marketing ideas

• Get your lights on your home (making sure they are just right) and place a sign in your yard offering Christmas light installation - We have actually seen a couple of businesses get creative with the moving lights to have them “move” toward the sign which helped draw our attention to it.  Don’t forget to place a small spotlight on the sign so your potential customers driving by can see the sign during the prime time – at night while they view your beautiful lights!
• Make a vinyl sign that you can place on your vehicle - If you call your local print shops they will often get you set up pretty quickly.  And if you call around you can negotiate a great price!
• Get your listing up on your local free classifieds - This is where Cassie saw our installers a few years back advertising and can be a great, FREE source of marketing!
• Ask some local senior citizen’s centers whether you can post a flyer in their center - If you think about it, there could be a great opportunity for seniors that would love to decorate their home but just can’t because they are unable to get on a ladder or on their roof.  This could be a great blessing to them as well.
• Offer incentives to your current customers that you’ll offer them a $5 gift card for referred customers - Not only are you getting word-of-mouth referrals (which are the best kind!) but you are giving them an incentive to do so and helping them reduce their overall cost of service – the more they refer, the cheaper their overall price is!
• Offer the same $5 gift card to your friends and family - They may not have paid for your service, but again advertising spread by word-of-mouth can help you grow your business organically!

Supplies you will need

• Ladders - Obviously you’ll need a couple of extension and shorter ladders to get you on the roof
• Warm clothing - If you remember our post on starting your own snow-removal business you’ll note we mentioned the need to purchase cold-weather clothing to keep yourself warm during the venture.
• Snow removal supplies - Depending on your bravery level (can you tell I’m a bit scared of heights?), you’ll probably need some shovels and de-icer to help give you some safety while you do this.
• Materials to attach the lights to the house - We assume if you are even considering this that you’ve put up Christmas lights in the past.  As you know it can require additional miscellaneous supplies such as various clips and even a staple gun (if your customer directs) to attach those lights.  Having the supplies stocked up well ahead of your job will help prevent unnecessary last-minute trips to the store.
• Extension cords - You will obviously want to factor the cost for any cords or power strips you might need into the bid for the job.  Each job will probably be unique as the customer may already have these ready for you to use.

Other considerations

• Obviously you really need to consider the risk involved - If you love heights and stand on the top of ladders for a good time, this might be a perfect fit for your family.
• Think outside of the box for how the whole family can work together - Each member of the family might offer great talents that you can use for the job.  Does one of the children have a great eye for design (e.g., our 7-year old marketer)?  Use him or her to design your marketing supplies!  Consider using some of your older children to help pick up the supplies from the store or even shop around to find a great deal on them!  If you sit down as a family you just might find some ideas that you would have never considered before.
• Consider loading of electrical sockets - As we mentioned before, we’re sure you have not only put your own lights up before but have probably done it multiple times.  Make sure that you understand just how many lights can be plugged in safely without tripping the breaker.
• Insurance - Make sure to discuss and consider the price of insurance with your insurance agent.  If you happen to have that roofing company we mentioned before you probably know all about this and possibly could already be covered.  Every business has risk involved, but this one seems to potentially have more than others.
• Taxes - This is standard on every money-making post, but make sure to discuss with your accountant how to track your costs and income to prepare your taxes.  There might be some deductible expenses (e.g., all the mileage for the work/advertising, cost of supplies, etc) that you might not initially consider as part of this business.

We hope some of these ideas will at least get you started in developing your Christmas Light Installation business.  We would love to hear other considerations you might have and anything else we might have missed.

Finally, we encourage you to check out our full list of over 100 ways to earn additional income!  We plan on expanding this list in the days and weeks ahead as there are some great opportunities with the holidays approaching!

Photo credit:  Thank you to Home Tips as the source of this image.

Earlier this year Cassie noticed that Dave Ramsey referred to PerkStreet Financial^SM as a financial services company that made a lot of sense – they offer a FREE checking account with a debit card that rewards you for using their card (the normal verbiage: non-PIN transactions of course).  From his recommendation we thought we would check them out – and we have been very happy users since.  We love they were founded to help families live debt-free by rewarding them for making smart spending choices and avoiding credit card debt and big banking fees.

First if you’ve been following the news, you know a lot of banking customers (us ourselves) are up in arms over the number of fees that banks are charging to use their debit cards.  Wells Fargo, Chase & SunTrust all charge somewhere in the range from $3-5 monthly just for using some of their debit cards.  The latest, Bank of America made the announcement they would charge a monthly $5 fee for the same.  If I understand correctly, they heard their customers loud and clear (or many ex-customers, that is) and have recently taken back that charge.  If nothing else, you can sense the winds of additional bank fees – as demonstrated by the Bank Transfer Day – a day dedicated for users to leave their current banks and transfer fully to a credit union solely because of bank fees for debit card use.

Here’s where the awesome part comes in – PerkStreet Financial offers their checking account and debit card without any maintenance fees and instead rewards you to use their debit card (on all non-PIN purchases) – and you can keep your current bank account!  Here’s what they say about themselves:

It’s an FDIC insured checking account that gives you more debit card rewards than any other account in America. When you use your PerkStreet Financial Debit MasterCard^® without entering a PIN, you earn free coffee, music or 2% cash back, plus up to 5% cash back in popular categories.

So as you can tell, what’s amazing with PerkStreet Financial is that you can get 2% cash back just for using your card and making purchases you would normally make every day compared to our current bank that only offers 0.25% back – a HUGE difference!  PerkStreet Financial also states their average customer receives back $601 per year in perks – which means about a $50 card per month.  And yes, that’s one of our rewards cards above!

First, its free and easy to open an account.  Just click on this link to PerkStreet Financial and after you get to their site just click on the button below (you can’t miss it ) to apply for an account – and as they have said before, it only takes a few minutes to fill out!

After they approve and create your account they will notify you and you can start using them for your purchases!

So here’s the nitty and the gritty:

• Earn 2% cash back on all non-PIN debit card purchases for 3 months (90 days)
• After 90 days, earn 2% cash back on every non-PIN purchases when your balance is $5,000 or more or earn 1% cash back for balances below $5,000. Either way, you won’t find another bank in America that gives you more rewards on debit .
• Get 5% PowerPerks at rotating monthly categories and merchants (this month on movie and local bakery purchases)
• No credit check. No annual fee. It’s free to get and free to use.

Finally, we’ll share with you more in the future on how you can maximize your perk rewards, but when you request your rewards you can receive them as assorted gift cards or – our favorite – CASH (in the form of a card as you see above).  We love taking those perks and paying some of our bills online.  How great it is to see our monthly budget reduced (even if just a little bit) just because we earned cash back spending wisely!

Click here to sign up today!

The PerkStreet Financial^SM Debit MasterCard^® is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to license from MasterCard International Incorporated.

MySurvey is accepting new applicants right now and so we wanted to give you a head’s up because, as we have mentioned before, survey companies can be great opportunities to earn a little extra money!

In this case, the money is in the form of gift cards to retailers, restaurants, etc.  So this is just as good as cash, yes it won’t pay your electric bill, but if you sntached a Walmart gift card for example, it can help with your grocery bill which means that money can go towards another bill or financial goal!

With MySurvey, you share your thoughts taking surveys about products/services and you will receive points (each survey has a different points value and different length of time for each).  You can take as little or many surveys as you want, but you will “bank” your points and then you can redeem them for prizes, including gift cards.  It reminds us of Swagbucks!

You can head to the MySurvey site here to quickly apply.

You will be asked questions about your demographics and household interests so that they surveys are tailored to you! This only takes a few minutes, then you are well on your way to start earning!

Be sure to see our “Earn Extra Income: Over 100 Ways and Counting” for more money make ideas!

We’ve mentioned survey companies to earn extra cash, but what about taking quick short surveys for exclusive high value product coupons and FREE samples?

You can join the mailing list for Shopper’s Voice and answer questions when you want.  In return, you will receive these exclusive high value coupons and samples from companies like Proctor and Gamble, Nestle, Con-Agra, Johnson & Johnson and more.

This is a great way to rake in extra savings for your family’s budget and be rewarded for a few minutes of your time!

Shopper’s Voice only opens up to new members a few times a year, so don’t miss this opportunity before they close membership on this round! When you first join, you will be asked a series of questions on what you and your family purchase so that they can tailor the surveys and the coupons/samples to your liking.  This takes a few minutes to get started, but will hopefully be more than worth it!

Join the Shopper’s Voice mailing list here.

See more FREE Stuff and Ways to Earn Extra Income Over 100 and Counting

Thanks A Proverb’s Wife

This is open again for new applicants, so we are posting this again!

Have you heard about Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel before?  Well, we had not and we had several friends that are consumer panelists for this company and they really like it! In addition, you can win cash and earn prizes just for doing something you all ready do – Shop.

Essentially how it works is (if you are accepted) you will receive a price gun and you will scan your groceries as you put them away.  They are tracking consumer spending habits to see how to change the market, etc.   This is a fun activity for kids to do while you’re putting groceries away and the longer you’re a panelist, the better the prizes get.

So you can join Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel – Earn valuable points, which are redeemable for electronics, household items, jewelry, toy, gift cards, and more.

There application windows are short, so if you and your family is interested, don’t hesitate to apply!

Head to the Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel site for more details.

See our previous post for even more ideas on Over 100 Ways and Counting to Earn Extra Income

It’s time for the next money making post.  We hope that our list of over 100 ways to earn extra income and articles are inspiring you and your family to pick up pen and paper and jot down ideas for your own family business.  We will continue to share ideas with you on how to make money on the side with the hope it will encourage you in meeting your financial goals and with the thought that maybe one day one you can transform one of these ideas into a full-time money-making venture!  Please don’t forget to continue sharing with us any ideas that you have as well.

We want to now discuss running a snow removal business.  We do write this with the understanding that some of you might be blessed to live in an area which may snow every few years and where the city shuts down on that one day.    We will try to catch you on the next article.  But for you families that know what snow is, love the first snowfall and possibly start dreading it on the second (or love it through the end!), this article is for you.

One of the things we love about this business is how many members of the family can play an integral role.  Don’t forget whenever you look at a business to consider developing a family economic – each member of the family can play a role.  We will discuss this more thoroughly in another article, but instilling a solid work ethic into your children will prepare them for life.  Training your children to be the ant (referencing Proverbs 6:6-11) instead of the sluggard, will train your children to work hard, learn that money doesn’t grow on trees and that hard work is necessary to reap later and make it through the lean times.

Why are we talking about Snow Removal business when the snow hasn’t even fallen in most parts of the country?  Because if you get started now could mean less time each day to prepare, the ability to find cheaper tools and materials, and especially more time to find committed customers!

Steps To Start A Snow Removal Business

Set a goal about what you hope to make or achieve in this money making venture. 
Ask yourselves whether this business will this cover a bill (like the heating bill) or the car payment?  Will it perhaps pay for your next family vacation (vacations are always much more enjoyable when everyone worked hard to meet the goal!), or even help you get closer to your financial goals.

Remember to keep that goal in front of you as you make your decisions.  You don’t want to under-prepare if you are hoping to make a significant income from this, nor do you want to over-extend yourself when you were only hoping to make a few dollars.  It can and will become what you make of it.

Figure out who in the family will be doing this money making venture and what roles each member would play
Do you have some in the family that are more adept at handling the snow blower?  Do you need someone to handle the phone calls and all the marketing?  Maybe you have some younger children that would love to be in charge of the de-icer or a snow shovel for those areas a snow-blower can’t easily reach such as the steps.  Your family is unique and as such you will need to decide just how each family member can play a role in your business.

Determine your price point
Research what past snow removal businesses have charged and try to beat this.  Each area will be different so ask around what a going rate is for snow removal in your area either from home owners, business owners, etc.  You will also need to determine how much area you can cover per hour (obviously the level and type of snow fall will affect this). Determine if you want to charge per job or per hour.  In our opinion, we suggest charging per job as the time will vary based on snowfall, and businesses will pay more per job than a homeowner would.

Decide what equipment you will need
Try to think a bit out of the box on this one.  Do you need a certain number or types of shovels?  What kind and how much de-icer might you need for the year?  Consider the size of snow blower you might be willing to purchase.  Again, this will depend on your ultimate goal and size of the business, but if you can clear a path with a larger snow blower in a fraction of a time of an entry-level snow blower it just might be more economical to purchase the larger blower.  Make sure to consider whether you will need to purchase heavier coats, insulated underwear/overalls, and gloves as these are items you might not initially consider as a cost but find yourself spending money on later.

Decide how you will pay for the equipment
Do you have most of the equipment already?  Do you already have funds set-aside to invest?  Can you borrow the equipment from someone to get started and then buy your equipment once you are making money?  We have learned the hard way how using debt to pay for a business venture can be a detriment so again, our encouragement would be to try to consider options that don’t require pulling out the credit card even if you just know its going to be a great business.

Find the equipment now when its cheaper
If you can look for a snow blower and equipment now before the snow season hits you will have more options and probably an even cheaper price.  Possibly even consider finding a cheap snow blower as well if you know what you are looking for.  Once the snow starts falling, this equipment will become high in demand and that means higher prices!

Advertise your business
We recommend taking advantage of free advertising services in your area like the online classifieds or the newspaper (if yours is free). Consider approaching businesses, HOA’s, apartment complexes, and homeowners before the snow season starts and getting some contracts or simple agreements to take care of their snow removal that season.  You can do as much or as little as you want – you will control your commitment.

After the first snow fall, consider placing fliers on cars in parking lots advertising your service.  You can also take it snow-by-snow as it is unpredictable when you will be working.  Don’t forget the old trick of going door-to-door after a good snow day offering to remove the snow for a predetermine amount of money as your time allows.  Very often people are thinking they are ready to clear their own snow but when someone else offers to do it for a reasonable price – it just might encourage them to not get cold and exhausted. 

Offer incentives to your current customers
Consider offering an incentive to your customers if they send you a referral such as “$5 off your next service” to help your business grow.  It always seems that word of mouth referrals are the best kind.

Use social media to your benefit
Start a Facebook page and/or Twitter account for your business to spread the word and to avoid costs associated with running a website – this is free and a free way of advertising your business.  This is also a great way to keep past clients in contact with you. Of course, a website is a very good investment if you want to turn this into a business even more, or if you decide your first year was worth it to invest even more into it in the future!

Keep detailed records
Be organized and keep good income and expense records as you will need them for reporting on your taxes.  What?  Yes, this is a business so you will need to report your income, but don’t forget those receipts for all your mileage on your car, equipment and marketing supplies.  Of course, we encourage you to talk to a good accountant to help you through this.

Finally, don’t forget to have fun making that extra money
We have found some of the greatest joys in working together as a family in our different ventures.  And all that extra exercise and time working instead of lounging in front of the television just might help bring your family closer, make you a bit healthier, and help you achieve that goal you are trying to meet.

See our previous post Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting.   We would love for you to make suggestions to help us continue expanding our ever growing list of ways to make money to help your every financial goal!

Photo credit:  Thank you to CityOfEvanston.org for the featured photo.

A while ago we shared over 100 ways to earn extra income as additional money in your budget can play such an integral part to achieving your financial goals.  Whether you are trying to make ends meet, get out of debt, or even grow your savings for a planned event or emergency, hopefully our list of ways to bring in that extra dough will give you some ideas on how you and your family can meet your goals!

Today we want to discuss the option of donating plasma for bringing in extra income for your family. Some very dear friends of ours have been enjoying the benefits of donating plasma – but what we didn’t know until recently talking to them is the amazing benefits for the recipients of the plasma as well as for the donors themselves.

First, we want to discuss what plasma donation is.  It is different than donating blood as you are obviously not giving a pint of blood but rather the straw-colored portion of your blood consisting mainly of water, proteins, and antibodies which the body can quickly replace.  What is great about this is instead of being able to donate only once every eight weeks you can donate up to twice in a seven day period. But what is even more important is that plasma is not directly used by local hospitals like blood, but rather undergoes a very highly engineered process to create life-saving therapies for persons born with genetic diseases, blood disorders, burn victims and more!

As we mentioned above, we didn’t realize until we spoke more with our friends about how many benefits there are for plasma donation.  We have listed just a few of the benefits below:

• Compensation - Right now the annual worldwide demand for plasma is over 20 million liters whereas licensed donation centers in the U.S. only meet 11 million liters of that demand.  As such, donors are compensated for their time and dedication to participating in the program.
• Compensation for your time and dedication – Each facility will offer slightly different compensations amounts, but our friends each make approximately $25-30 each per visit.  When you consider that each visit is approximately 1-1.5 hours in length and that you can visit up to twice a week, one person could make up to $60/week or $200-240 per month.  If both you and your spouse were to donate, a couple could make approximately $480/month by just donating plasma – or almost $6,000 per year for only spending up to three hours per week of dedicated time!
• Referral/promotion compensation – You can often earn referral compensation in addition to the money you earn just for donating.  Donation centers often run promotions for first time visitors, compensation for referrals (either for you or your friend – or both!), and for continued donations.
• Compensation method – We’re sure the compensation method may vary slightly as well.  The center our friends use gives them a debit card on their first visit and then refills it on each subsequent visit.  They use their debit card on groceries, get the money back during purchase, or use the card on online bill pay for their budget.  Each time they have donated, the money was on the card as soon as they walked out the door of the center.
• Knowing you are saving lives – Maybe it just didn’t click previously when I considered plasma donation.  But when you consider all the life-saving therapies and diseases treated by the simple act of plasma donation it truly puts it into a different light.  Knowing that your donation could save a life or even help someone in their healing process is priceless!
• Free babysitting and internet – Obviously this will depend on your donation center, but the center our friends utilize offers free child care during the donation process.  And as 80% of the 1.5 hours is just sitting and allowing the donation process to finish, they take in their laptops and enjoy the free Wi-Fi their center offers as well.
• Enjoying a break – In combination with the possible child care and internet, our friends mention how much they actually enjoy donating blood as it gives them a nice break.  The husband has taken in his kids to use the free child care after his wife has had a long day, enjoyed his time donating and given his wife a well-deserved break.  Alternatively, his wife can stop in during a busy day of running errands and enjoy the same.  Even just taking a few minutes to sit down with a good book while making $25-30 for doing so is enough incentive for our friends to donate!

With all benefits can come some downsides as well:

• Risk – According to donatingplasma.org there are risks but they are low when all things are considered.  You will want to make sure to locate a licensed, International Quality Plasma Program (IQPP)-certified plasma collection center near you.  Our friends love how comfortable they feel each time they go to donate – the center has professional, trained staff that provides a sterile environment with a medical office atmosphere assuring them of their safety throughout the process.
• Time to dedicate to plasma donation – As with every money-making endeavor you encounter you will need to determine whether the time is worth the amount of money you earn – your Return-on-Investment (ROI).  While it is true you will spend about 1-1.5 hours (door-to-door) in the donation process, there are always additional factors to consider such as travel time and planning required to fit it into your schedule.

How can you get started?

• We found DonatingPlasma.org as an amazing resource to learn about this whole process.  You can find out more about the eligibility requirements (at least 18 years of age and 110 lbs), health considerations and educate yourself about donating plasma.
• Find a licensed center near you and call ahead to find out anything special you might need to bring for your first visit.  Some centers will require you to schedule an appointment while others will accept in walk-ins.  Calling ahead will help you to anticipate what you will expect when you walk in the door.
• Ask your friends if they donate.  As stated above many donation centers offer special promotions and referral compensation possibly for you and  your friend.  If any of your friends donate, just by simply asking you can help them (and maybe yourself) by mentioning they referred you!
• Schedule your first visit – When you sign up for your first visit to the donation center you can expect to receive a physical check up with a registered nurse and an evaluation of your health history.  Each licensed donation center might have slight differences in their process, but checking with the center will let you know what to expect and the time you should allot for the initial visit.
• Go in and donate!  If donating plasma is a good fit for you and possibly your spouse, then there is no better time than the present.  We have often found that continuing the “We’ll start next week” mentality just delays the inevitable and gets you nowhere fast!

We would love to find out if you have donated plasma and to have you share with us your experience! 

See our previous post Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting.  We love your suggestions for additional income ideas to help us continue expanding our ever growing list of ways to earn extra money to achieve your every financial goal!

We continue to build our every-growing list of Over 100 Ways to Earn Extra Income.  One of our questions to you was to share with us any business ideas you believe should be on the list.  Not only do we have a new business idea to share with you and add to our list, but even more a success story how a wife and mother quit her corporate job of nine years to come home and enjoy her passion – calligraphy!

About seven years ago, Jennifer started her calligraphy studio, Graceful Expressions.  She knew even from a young age that she had a love of writing and always loved art classes and well, everything art!  What is amazing is she was able to take her hobby and transform it into her own business.

So you may be asking what a calligrapher does.  Our answer from everything we have ever seen is a person that creates visual art.  Jennifer mentions that she is able to make a sizable income on home addressing wedding invitations, place cards, and even corporate work.  You can get an idea of what a calligrapher does by exploring her amazing gallery samples.  And like every business opportunity its great to think outside the box.  She also provides marriage proposals, Bible inscriptions, specialty items and more!

Are you interested in art?  Do you have beautiful handwriting?  Are you just one of those artistic types that love expressing yourself creatively?  This could definitely be an option for you.  Jennifer mentions she is self-taught and has never taken a professional course in her life.  But you can tell from her gallery, her story and her site as a whole that she loves what she does.  From attending a bridal show just seven years ago and displaying some of her work, her business grew from one client into many, one envelope turned into thousands and she is still loving every minute!

Don’t think you need to spend thousands of dollars to get started in this business.  Jennifer mentions she was able to get started for under $100.  She runs her own website and when she is doing the projects the client supplies the items so there is no need to purchase products beforehand other than her ink which lasts forever!  She also mentions that she participates in several bridal shows per year which takes care of her business.  Even now she has already booked many brides for 2012!

We love her success story.  If you have the time, we really encourage you to read her full story she shares on her website.  She didn’t think initially that her love and true passion would produce an income but through persistence, gaining experience and even overcoming adversity she has been able to just this past week quit her full-time position and pursue her passion – and not only that but also bringing in just as much income as she did originally.  This has also allowed her to be a full-time mom and taking her two year old son out of day care which means another cut in expenses in her family’s budget.  Her little guy sits next to her as she reads aloud the addresses and cities, states, and zip codes and colors!  What a great teaching resource!

But remember the purpose of this post is to give you ideas how to make some extra income to meet your every financial goal!  We are not trying to insinuate that you need to quit your full-time job but rather encouraging possible ideas how you can take your calligraphy hobby (you can expand this and apply to any hobby as well) and turn it into even a part time additional income.

Here’s some resources (some free) that could be of benefit to you if you’re trying to learn more about calligraphy:

• Check out other businesses to gain ideas on the types of products they offer
• Search online for free resources!  We found sites such as CalligraphyLearn.com and many others that could give you some beginning tips on how to develop your skills as a calligrapher.  Don’t forget to check YouTube as an amazing resource to learn by watching others.
• Find books that will help you hone your skills.  We found Learn Calligraphy: The Complete Book of Lettering and Design as one such book that could really be a valuable resource!  As you read through you online resources be watching for other books they recommend.
• Just do it!  If you remember, we mentioned Jennifer taught herself.  The more she practiced and just did the more experience she gained and added to her skillset.  Please don’t get me wrong, there is a place for formalized training.  But it seems we have been so ingrained of its necessity that we forget that many trades and skills can be developed by passion and practice put into motion!

We would love to continue hearing more from you all with similar stories you might have of hobbies that you have turned into extra income for you and your family.  Please contact us and let us know what other success stories (and even stories lacking success to help us learn from your well-earned bruises) so we can build our ideas on how to maximize your opportunities for earning extra income to meet all of your family’s financial goals!

See our previous post Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting.   We would love for you to make suggestions to help us continue expanding our ever growing list of ways to make money to help your every financial goal!

This week’s Make Money Feature is regarding becoming an Avon Representative.  We mentioned direct sales and network sales marketing as part of our growing list of over 100 ways to make money.  But due to the large number we wanted to highlight select opportunities individually as they are so popular and a seemingly big way to make money from home.  We are featuring Avon first as they are a very large company that has been around for a very long time.  Avon and it’s products are a popular household name, which is already a plus for it already having an established credibility.  Would you recommend selling Avon as a great way to earn extra income from home?

There are a few sites that have done reviews and posted the pros and cons of being an Avon Representative.

First, we found a list of accolades and awards that Avon has received.

2011

• Best 100 Corporate Citizens (#16), The CRO Magazine, 2011

2010

• Corporate Social Responsibility Index Top 50 (#28), Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute, 2010
• Top 100 in the “Green Ranking” of the largest 500 American companies, Newsweek, 2010
• Clinton Global Citizen Award: Andrea Jung, President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, 2010
• 50 Most Powerful Women in Business: Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung (#5), Fortune, 2010
• Top 50 Women in World Business Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung (#2), Financial Times, 2010
• World’s 100 Most Powerful Women: Andrea Jung, Forbes, 2010

2009

• Barron’s 500, Barron’s, 2009
• Top 50 Companies for Executive Women, National Association for Female Executives, 2009
• Top 500 Green Companies, Newsweek, 2009

Here are some reviews we found around the web:

Pros

• Work life balance is good, and there is opportunity for growth for hard workers
• Self employed, flexibility, meet people, at your pace, good merchandise
• Being involved in new products launches which become a hit.
• Great products, trendy, and people friendly. The value offered to the client is what keeps them coming back for more.
• Fun, good products, make a little cash, monthly meeting with giveaways (more ways to make money)
• Extremely passionate people to work with. It’s a global company with very strong growth in emerging markets, where traditional retail industry is nascent, giving an opportunity for direct selling. Respect for work/life balance.

Cons

• Lack of defined goals . You have to make your own targets
• Clients delayed on pay for merchandise
• Constant changes made, especially late changes.
• Not enough pay, needs to be more competitive in the marketplace on pay and they would keep more people.
• Little to no support from managers. Favoritism is played out among the reps. Expectation is that you attend many meetings taking up your valuable time.
• Business is highly dependent on personal selling, and in an increasingly web-dominant world, this creates a challenging competitive environment – especially in developed markets.
• There was no healthcare offer in the Avon company. You had to go out get your own healthcare insurance.

You can see more reviews on GlassDoor.com or ReviewStream.com

I have not worked with Avon before, but I have used Avon products and make Avon purchases occasionally as a customer when there is a product or sale that I like. So from a customer perspective, I personally know that I find the products to be reasonably priced, especially on their sales items and they have great sales often.  I have noticed Avon offers the best sales and deals as compared to other direct sales or network marketing companies for similar or like products.

Learn more about becoming an Avon Sales Rep.  You can request information to help you decide if this could help be a supplemental income through this link!

We would love you to share your thoughts on whether you think being an Avon representative should be one of our recommended ways to make money.  Are there other pros or cons you could provide to help others decide if this is the right opportunity for them?

See our previous post Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting.   We would love for you to make suggestions to help us continue expanding our ever growing list of ways to make money to help your every financial goal!

Check out how you can get paid for your opinion as today’s money making highlight that is available right now for you to utilize to bring in extra cash.  This is an easy one and one that you can do from home in just a couple of minutes a day!

You can make cash from survey companies and the one we are featuring today is Global Test Market surveys.   From most surveys, you will get paid for your opinion cash.

Here’s information from the Global Test Market site about their program that is open for enrollment right now:

Did you know that since our program was founded in 2000, we’ve awarded over $30 million in cash to our survey participants? It’s true, and now you can be part of it too.  Read on to find out how our rewards system works.

• You take surveys to earn MarketPoints; then you redeem your MarketPoints for cash. Not for airline seats that never seem to be available; not for overpriced merchandise you never wanted in the first place, but for cash — paid by check wherever you live in the world. Get paid for your opinion. (Whoohoo!)
•  You must earn 1,000 MarketPoints first; then you can redeem them for $50 (or the equivalent in your local currency if available). So, just like your teachers always told you: persistence pays off! Every time you reach that 1,000 point level, you can redeem your points again.
•  We like to a mix it up a little bit with both points and prizes. For some surveys you complete, you’ll be entered into a quarterly prize drawing for $20,000. And to spread the winnings around a bit, we have an additional $300 cash sweepstakes prize that someone, somewhere wins every single day.
•  You can check your MarketPoints balance and your sweepstakes entries anytime you want. And occasionally we may send you bonus offers or special rewards based on your participation. The more you participate, the more opportunities you’ll have to earn and win.

We have been a part of this company for a short time and you will receive emails showing you what each survey is worth (the number of MarketPoints to help you reach your next 1,000 point mark) and so far, most have been worth 30-60 MarketPoints, which means around 20 surveys for $50! That is a really decent payout for cash surveys.  Also, just like the list above, some of your emails will be offers for a survey to be entered into the cash drawing.  It is up to you to decide which ones you want to participate in and which ones you want to pass on!

With consistency, you could receive a regular $50 check.  We like to think in terms of what bill this job opportunity could cover to make it more realistic for us to complete! How would an extra $50 a month affect your goal?

To join Global Test Market, just head to their site here to apply. The application process includes a handful of questions regarding gender, age, household size, etc. so that you can be matched with the right surveys. Then you will receive email notification of your application status and then start earning and covering a bill each month! Please note: You will need to confirmation your application from your email to get started. So get paid for your opinion!

See our master list of Ways to Earn Extra Income: Over 100 and Counting

We wanted to share with you ideas on how to make money on the side! As we learned first-hand, one way to reach your financial goals is to find ways of increasing your income. Whether your goals are to get out of debt, start your own business, be self-employed, or even have a nice savings with an inheritance to one day leave your children, extra money is going to help you and your family get there faster!

With that in mind, we have a quick list with currently over 100 ways to earn a little bit more and increase that income.  Keep watching as we will continue linking each one to a more extensive article including ideas on how to make that particular money making opportunity work! A few of the jobs listed below already linked to an article with additional information – just click on the link to learn more.

Many of these things we have done ourselves to bring in extra money! Those ways that we have done personally, we put a “*” next to it.

With this list, many of the ideas below do not require extra training or skills, just the willingness to put forth the effort.  Some of the ways to earn below will require minimal training, but the time invested could be worth the pay off as a part time endeavor and could maybe even turn into a full-time job if you love it!  Even better, some of these items might include hobbies you already have which means you will be well suited for turning the time you enjoy into a money-making venture!

Finally, we want this list to KEEP GROWING with your help.  Please share ideas on additional ways to to earn that extra income so that we can keep adding to this list for all to utilize!

Have you done any of these yourself?  Let us know if you would like to write one of our featured articles on tips and tricks on how you made this job work for you – if you have the experience we would love you to share it with all of us!

We’ve posted about this before and now the application process is open again until they fill-up!

Have you heard about Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel before?  Well, we had not and we had several friends that are consumer panelists for this company and they really like it! In addition, you can win cash and earn prizes just for doing something you all ready do – Shop.

Essentially how it works is (if you are accepted) you will receive a price gun and you will scan your groceries as you put them away.  They are tracking consumer spending habits to see how to change the market, etc.   This is a fun activity for kids to do while you’re putting groceries away and the longer you’re a panelist, the better the prizes get.

So you can join Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel – Earn valuable points, which are redeemable for electronics, household items, jewelry, toy, gift cards, and more.

There application windows are short, so if you and your family is interested, don’t hesitate to apply!

Head to the Nielsen Home Scan Consumer Panel site for more details.