After writing last week’s blog, I received a question from a friend. It’s one that I’ve been asked many times, so I thought I’d just put it down here for all to read.
The question was “How is it that you are on disability (aka limited income), but you are always buying things?”
The ‘things’ range from art supplies, knitting supplies, yarn, books, garden stuff, etc.
So, here is my answer, anyone can do it.
I use some of my alone time earning ‘rewards’ from different programs. More often than not I am using rewards to pay for all, or a good portion of whatever I am buying. I’ve learned by trial and error which are worth it and which are spamming idiots. There are always knew ones coming along, and sometimes favorites don’t survive, so you have to just keep looking around.
Here are some of my favorites:
Gongos is the one I’ve been a member of for the longest time, probably 4 years now. Gongos is a research community with different options depending on your questionnaire answers. Sometimes it is a flash poll, sometimes a survey, but sometimes you get lucky and will land on a panel. You earn Tokens for the different activities, amount of tokens vary by activity. The tokens collected can then be exchanged for rewards, like Amazon e-gift cards. You can set your preferences to participate, making it convenient to work at it when and how often YOU want to.
One of the things I like about Gongos, no spam! It’s not one of those survey sites that send you 20 emails a day. Gongos doesn’t sell your information either. The activities are sponsored by real companies that want real meta-data. I’ve done panels for Old Navy, a local hospital ER group, a computer company, and more surveys and flash polls than I can recall.
I’ve only been using this one for three months or so, but I like it. As it continues to grow it could turn into something great. Savings Star works off of your local grocery store rewards card (Gerbs Plus, Hyvee Fuel Saver, etc.) and for online shopping. You can browse through their coupon page, select any of the coupons you want and go do your grocery shopping. The difference is, instead of getting 50 cents off an item in the store, you get 50 cents in your Savings Star account. The one I use most often is the produce coupon. They feature one produce item every week or so, and it’s usually like 20% of the total purchase price on bananas, avocados, or apples, etc. How often have you seen a coupon for bananas? (Yes, I am allergic to bananas, but the hubby isn’t, so I get them for him). If it is something I’m going to buy anyway, then why not earn cash? If you start your online shopping through their links, you receive credit in your account. I haven’t done this option with them much yet.
Why is this good? Because it adds up and then you get to spend that money to buy a reward. Again, my favorite reward is Amazon e-gift cards. You aren’t going to earn a fortune, but I do something on it once a week, when I do the menu and grocery list, and it adds up. I’ve already scored several $5 e-gift cards from them.
Yes, they are collecting data. From your grocery rewards card they can see what you purchase each time you use one of their coupons. This one didn’t bug me like some other data mining sites. Why? Because they are not collecting my specific information. The grocery rewards card only tells them what was purchased, no information about me specifically. They don’t collect payment information. Basically, they collect less information about your shopping habits than the grocery store that gave you the rewards card.
Savings Star leaves the participation amount up to you. You can do as little, or as much as you like. Also, no spam and they don’t sell your info. I get one email a week with the weeks new coupons in it.
I’ve been a member of this one for a while, but I don’t use it like I probably should. Mainly, I forget about it, but also because I don’t do that much online shopping. I have specific things I buy at specific times. Ebates works like this: they partner with sites to get discounts, usually free shipping, or one time special deals. When you shop, you start at the Ebates page and click their link through to the site you want. Once your purchase is complete, Ebates gives you a ‘rebate’ amount and puts it into your account.
So lets say you want to order a Craftsman socket set for a Father’s Day gift. Start at the Ebates homepage, click their link through to Sears and buy what you want. In a few days you’ll receive a rebate in your account for a percentage of your purchase. Once you receive enough rebates, they give you the cash. I have them deposit it directly into my PayPal account. Fun part is, you can click through their link to Amazon, use your e-gift cards earned from other sites and still receive a rebate from Ebates. Double win!
This one is a bit different. Erewards partners with specific companies. In my case, Upromise. I have had a Upromise account for a long time. If you are not familiar with Upromise, and you have young kids or grandkids, you should be. Upromise puts money into a college savings account. It’s similar to the others, start your shopping through their site, and a percentage of the purchase goes into the account. You can also link it to your grocery store rewards cards. The money goes into a college fund, for whomever you want.
Erewards is a survey site. You earn ‘money’ for taking the surveys and then trade that money in for a deposit into the Upromise account. The surveys vary in size and earnings, and you can participate in how ever many you want. If I’m in the mood for it, I can do enough surveys in a couple of weeks time to earn a $50 deposit into the Upromise account. So while I don’t directly earn spending money, I am putting money away for the grandkids.
Ibotta works very similar to Savings Star in that you earn the cash in your account instead of money off at the cash register. They have different rebates for groceries, in store shopping, and online shopping. For example, this week I used the Milk rebate and the ‘Back to Nature’ granola rebate. You go through the list, pick the items you want and do the activities. Usually a poll, or a ‘share it to Facebook’, sometimes a commercial. Each activity unlocks more rebate money.
For the ‘Back to Nature’ granola, I took a poll, learned a fact, and did a ‘how to’, to unlock 75 cents. Then when I got home from grocery shopping, I scanned the product bar code, snapped a picture of the receipt and submitted it. $1.25 credit into my account (including the milk). Once you hit $5, you can keep building it, or transfer it to your Paypal account. I’ve earned over $45 in the last 6 months through them.
Fun tip for this one, the Ibotta reward has nothing to do with the actual purchase price. So, you can match it up to sale ads, your coupons, and or rebates from other programs like Savings Star. My best deal yet was on Ziploc. One week I was lucky enough to have a $1 (paper) coupon, the store had them on sale, and Ibotta had $1.25 reward. I purchased $9 worth of ziploc bags/containers for a sale price of $7, less the $1 paper coupon, I paid $6. Then I received the $1.25 reward from Ibotta. So really, I bought $9 worth of ziploc for $4.75.
I hope this helps explain why I can occasionally afford to do something, usually via Amazon, lol. I do choose the Amazon e-gift cards a lot, mainly because they never expire and if Amazon doesn’t have it, you probably can’t find it anywhere else anyway. The e-cards are good at all the Amazon sites too, like Amazon local, or Amazon Marketplace.
Any questions, or if you have a site you’d like to share, please leave a comment.
Thanks for reading!
TH
No comments:
Post a Comment