Extra Cash for Christmas

As of this post writing, there is only 66 days left until Christmas!  Crazy!  Is it just me or has this year flown by?

Anyway, are you going to pay CASH for Christmas or are you going to put it on credit cards?  I am so hoping that you said cash!  I don't know your personal finance situation so I will just show you a few places to get some cash for Christmas.

These are some survey sites and mystery shop sites that you can earn extra cash to spend for the holidays.  Even though these don't pay "that much" money, they can add up over time.  What if you were to do them for 6-10 months leading up to Christmas?  When you are mindlessly watching TV, just login and complete some.  They don't take very long.


These are legit companies that I have personally used and have personally gotten checks from.  (note:  these are accounts where I may get referral fees, some of them I don't).

Surveys from Inbox Dollars:  I have personally earned around $100.  There are lots of ways to earn money on IBD, like surveys, paid emails (just click the button), grocery coupons (I haven't done this), games, apps, etc. 


Mystery Shop companies

TrendSource
Intelli-Shop.com
MarketForce.com
Sinclair Customer Metrics



Garage Sales or Consignment Stores-Clean out your garage and/or closet to make extra $$.  If you have some "nicer" stuff then I would take it to a local consignment shop to get money.  If you have random stuff, maybe have a garage sale instead.   Take a few days to make a pile of stuff and sort it out by garage sale (ask friends if they want to join you) and by consignment store. There are a ton of shops that take children's clothes too.  I personally like going to consignment stores that the stores portion of the proceeds goes towards charities that I support, but that is a personal thing.

YOU CAN DO IT!!  Even if you only earn $20-50, that is $20-50 that doesn't have to go on a credit card.  Hustle out there to be debt free. :)

Side Hustle: Surveys

In the past few weeks, I have been reading personal finance blogs and you might have noticed some increase on financial type posts.  They have inspired me to write a few on my blog and do a bit more savings/budgeting than I used to.

I realized that while I make a lot of money (*a lot is a relative term), I don't know where it all goes!  I know I (try) send about $600 a month to student loans, the rest seems to leave without me noticing.  I do spend a lot on going out to eat though. :/  I am working on that.

In order to increase my savings and have a way to save for birthdays/holidays, I started to do surveys online.  I signed up for a few companies and have made about $40 in a few weeks!  It isn't too much, but my budget for gifts is about $30/month or $360 per year.  I figure if I make about $30 every two weeks, that pays for holidays and birthdays for the year.  The companies either pay you in gift cards (to places like Amazon or Visa gift cards) or they can send the $$ to your PayPal account.

Here are a few if you want to try it yourself.
Inbox Dollars-you can make money off of searches (like google), paid emails (click on the link), surveys, referells, watch short videos, spin and win, purchases (I got $5 for purchasing through them a Groupon), etc.  Super easy! I have made the most $$ off of this one.  Sign up and get $5 automatically in your account.  They also have monthly sweepstakes you can enter.

Swag Bucks-pretty much the same as Inbox Dollars, but you get points instead of cash.  The points equal a certain $ amount that you redeem for points.  I haven't used this one too much, but I already have enough points for about $5.

Let me know how it works out for you!  If you have any other ideas how to make easy money online (not scams! LOL), post below. I have another post soon about mystery shopping.

Dave Ramsey Budgeting

My work is sponsoring those of us that want to do it, a course called Financial Peace University.  When they offered it to us so many of us wanted to sign up that we have two classes.  My new company is so awesome that instead of putting a cap on the number of people that are able to participate, they just bought more kits.  They want all of us to be secure with money and know how to live life to our fullest with the money we make.  The class is more than $200 per person so it says a lot that they are paying for about 40 of to take it.  My friend Krista and her husband Tyler have been doing the Dave Ramsey system and are already making huge progress!  I know I have been sent a few messages when they paid off their car and also a college access loan (I know they have paid off a lot more than that though!).  It works when you do!  The program says that getting out of debt and building financial wealth is 20% head knowledge, and 80% change in behavior.

 Dave Ramsey (DR) is awesome, awesome, awesome!  I have read his book before, the Total Money Makeover, but I have never taken his course.  There are 13 weeks total in the program and each week we learn about a new topic.  Have you ever seen the movie ‘What about Bob?” well Bob is taking ‘baby steps’ to get over his phobias.  Our ‘baby steps’ in the program are to help us get out of debt, and become financially secure.  They go from saving $1,000 in the bank for an emergency fund, then using the debt snowball to get out of debt, after you get out of debt then you can go to the next steps like saving for retirement and college.

Just an FYI, I am in debt for student loans and not credit cards. K? Thanks!My favorite part so far (we are on week 2) is creating a cash system instead of using your debit card all of the time.  D.R. says that you aren’t attached to money on your debit card as you are with cash.  You are less likely to go out to eat every week if you can physically see and hand out your money to a waiter. 

I really think this will help me because I will tell you a story about me when I was in high school (long time ago).  When I was in highschool I worked for a childcare center making minimum wage (I think it was $5.15 an hour) and I could only work about 15 hours a week.  My checks were around $150 every two weeks (what a HUGE difference now!) and I would put $75 in my savings account, and the other $75 I would spend on whatever I wanted. I was sooooo good about saving money that when I graduated I had a lot of money (for a highschooler).  Then. I. Got. A. Debit. Card. And. My. Savings. And. Spending. Habits. Went. South. :/

I know that you can only spend what you have on a debit card, but it was a disconnect for me.  I couldn’t touch the money so it didn’t feel ‘real’.  Does that make since?  I had nothing to show (and still don’t) for all of the money I spent.  One month I looked and I spent $600 on going out to eat.  $600?!  WTF!    I am hoping that when I start using cash again that I will get back to being good at saving.  I realized that this is my money.  MINE!  I control it.  I shouldn’t give it away freely.  When I wake up early every morning to get out of bed to go to work I should have something to show for it. 

Moral of this post?  I am on a budget.  Yes, me Queen of Shoe Shopping and needless spending. I am going to try and post some of the tips I learned in class and some of my (hopefully) success stories.

My goal is to buy myself a house within the next few years.  I want to be debt free when I do that though so I can pay for it and not worry about paying for it and also the debt. 

Rice and Beans meals?  Yummy! 

I will be probably posting several things about Dave Ramsey over the next few months so get ready!