Even if you’ve trimmed your budget, it’s important to still have “mad money” to spend on things you enjoy. If your fun money account is dwindling, here are a few simple ways to earn some extra money or goods for a little of your time:
1. Bottle caps – Do you drink Coke products? If so, please tell me you’re not throwing away your bottle caps without entering the codes! I did so for many months before I decided to to go MyCokeRewards.com and start entering my codes. Since then I’ve earned several Blockbuster rentals (including some “movie night” deals that included popcorn and drinks), a t-shirt for a friend, and two magazine subscriptions. Now, admittedly, you’re better off drinking water or something cheaper than Coke products, but if you do buy them, you might as well put those caps to use.
2. Gazelle – In my latest decluttering binge, I ran across an old cell phone. It was a Samsung and definitely not the latest model. I checked eBay to see what my chances were of selling the phone (nil), and then went to Gazelle and input the details of my phone. Gazelle gave me an estimate of what they’d pay for the phone provided it was in the condition in which I had described it, then sent me a prepaid envelope for my phone and charger. A short while later I received an email stating that they’d checked out my phone, and that it was just fine. They provided a code for $15 off Amazon products. I could have received the payout in the form of a check, but had the choice of Amazon or many other vendors. Now $15 isn’t much, but it’s more than I would have gotten had I just dropped my phone in a charity bin. Gazelle also takes your Amazon Kindle (generation 1 or 2), laptops, MP3 players, digital cameras, LCD monitors, satellite radios, external drives, GPS devices, gaming consoles, video games, PDAs, camcorders, movies, and more. They claim to wipe your electronics clean of personal information before reselling them. If you have some old electronics just sitting around, Gazelle is a painless way to make some money. They’ll even show you a graph of when’s the best time to sell to make the most money.
3. Surveys – Welcome to scam-land! Only trust those survey sites that you’ve heard about from word-of-mouth from someone you know and trust or a respected company or blog. This is how I discovered ERewards. It’s a legitimate site that I’ve used to earn rewards like a $15 certificate to Borders. I’m averaging about $10-15 a month in goodies. ERewards lets you know up front what a survey is worth, even if you disqualify part way through (which earns you a lesser amount). The downside is that if you’re like me and aren’t a frequent spender on hot items (flat screen TVs, cars, etc.), you might not qualify for many surveys; however, you’ll still earn partial credit. That partial credit adds up quickly. Other downsides: Their surveys can take longer than the time estimates they give you (I usually complete the surveys casually while watching TV). A search of the Internet finds some angry people reporting that their points were once wiped away, but I haven’t experienced anything like this. Other survey sites to check out: PineCone Research and MySurvey.com. With all of the survey sites you research, just be sure to read the terms of service and make sure you’re comfortable with their privacy policy.
4. Half.com – I still encounter people who haven’t heard of or used Half.com, so I thought I’d better include this one. Half.com has a very simple interface for posting and pricing your books, movies, music, and games for sale. It’s not an auction; you’ll receive an email when someone has purchased your item. If you notice things that aren’t selling, you can easily switch to “repricing mode” and reduce the prices. It’s a good way to declutter and make some extra money.
5. Research companies – A friend once invited me to come along to an event at a research company. For an hour of my time, I sat in a room with other people and was presented with two Arby’s sandwiches. We were given checklists that had us grading the aesthetic appeal of the buns, the “mouthfeel,” and so on. It took an hour. I left with a full stomach and a $30 check in my hand. On my way out, I asked to be placed on their mailing list for other research. Do a search of the web or your local phone book for research companies in your area. Place some calls to find which ones are open to public testers, and request that they add your name to the list.
Do you have some tried-and-true ways to easily earn extra dough? Please share in the comments!
My gazelle experience was not very smooth. I wanted to sell them a fairly new PDA and they never sent me an envelope. Then when I asked for another envelope, I somehow was added to their junk mailings. Eventually I gave up and went with yourenew.com
thats http://www.yourenew.com
Tim, that looks like a very cool site. Thanks for sharing!
I dont think any of these options would really be considered “Mad Money” maybe extra pocket “Mad Pocket Change”
@Billy “Mad money” is spare money for contingencies. As described, I’m making more than a few coins a month. Personally, I’m not fond of carry around $50+ a month in coins in my pocket due to the the weight, bulk, and jingle factor, but YMMV.
Hi Liora,
I never thought all these are possible until I had read this article. It seems like it is possible to earn extra money just by being aware of things that is happening around us.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
Though Coke has reduced the number and quality of their rewards, I was able to purchase a number of Christmas gifts in the first and second year of its running.
Even though the number of the rewards has dropped and the big ticket items are no more, since they have removed the restriction on the number of codes you can enter per day, you can still get some nice items such as magazine subscriptions and movie and game rentals.
I have a number of friends collecting Coke codes for me, so last minute gifts are easy to obtain and if they ever bring the big ticket items back, I’m ready.
I used to do market research surveys all the time, they were fun and I made some pretty good money for a college student for an hour or two.
One of my students makes 50 bucks a week donating blood plasma. Better him than me!
I don’t know how to get invited to ERewards. Does anybody know how to get enrolled?
Hey, I mention this piece in my blog on how to enjoy the recession at http://jennamcwilliams.blogspot.com/2009/03/ow-to-enjoy-it.html. I’d love for you to take a look!
I think if I rent out my house and live camping out on other people’s floors for a while, I’d make a fair bit of money. Could I do it is the question? It is currently very appealing though – low risk, interesting and possibly even fun!
How do you sign up for the surveys? I got a mysurvey account, but how do you find a company to invite you to erewards? And I’m not sure about pinecove.
haha:)
Sure is easy way to make money in those that you mentioned but maybe not that “mad” or much.
Mabangis, if you look up the definition of “mad money,” it’s simply extra money for contingencies. The article wasn’t titled 5 Easy Ways to Make a Ton of Money for a reason!
really nice, very interesting to me about this is coming
I love to deal with these issues
Great stuff..thanks for the valuable info..cos makin a few extra bucks really helps.. lemme share how i make some decent pocket money..i’ve got lots of text documents, term papers etc taking up space on my hard disk..was wondering wat to do with’em and came across this cool site oboulo.com ..all i did was upload these docs on this site..simple n easy process.. n they pay a royalty amount every time my paper is bought.. mail me if u find any other interesting sites like these..
I’m looking for an easy way to make money so I don’t have to work any longer. At least $10K/month (American dollar not Turkish lira). What do I do?
:d :D
its very ineteresting thank you for sharing
I understand how the title can be confusing to some. Unfortunately, people get scammed into thinking things like online surveys will allow you to quit your day job. They don’t! This article isn’t about how to easily make 10k a month. I appreciate the authors suggestions to help people like me make some extra spending money.
Joe
loanpointusa
thanks tşk. kamera şakaları, kamera şakaları izle
thanks you for posted
Sure is easy way to make money in those that you mentioned but maybe not that “mad” or much.
thaks for posts
you are wonderfull
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thank you poster
tahnks so much
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[...] if you’ve had to tighten your belt, writes Liora Hess over at lifehack.org, you need to set aside some cash for fun. Hess offers five ways to garner some extra cash–and [...]
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