5 Easy Ways to Make Money Online

Here's the thing: I know I could do the adult thing and work my expenses (clothes and shoes) into our budget around here. But when it comes down to it, I feel guilty spending money on myself. Which is why I end up doing a lot of random stuff online to earn "fun" money that I don't feel like I have to spend on my kids (even though I end up spending it on them a lot of the time anyway...)!

Want to know my tricks? Of course you do!

--1--

Ebates

If you shop online, you can get cash back at almost every store you can think of through Ebates! All you do is click through their site before you make your purchase, and you get a certain percentage of your purchase mailed back to you as a handy dandy check!

(Ahem, you can even get cash back at ThredUP, where you're already saving money!)

--2--

Swagbucks

Similar to Ebates, you can shop through Swagbucks and get a certain amount of points, redeemable for gift cards (including Paypal gift cards, which is essentially cash). BUT there's also a lot more you can do to earn points, including taking surveys, searching for things online, playing games, and watching videos. I joined a year ago and have made maybe $50, and I do almost all of my non-Amazon shopping through Ebates so that's basically just surveys and the like!

--3--

Sell your clothes!

I don't sell via Ebay, but I know a lot of people do - it's just too much work for me. What I *do* like is selling via ThredUP, since they'll send a bag, do all the work for me, and I send them things I was just going to donate anyway! I've been taking store credit, but you can also cash out via PayPal if you don't want credit.

--4--

Who doesn't like surveys?

I'm a member of several survey sites that pay a small amount of money for surveys you fill out (like Springboard America and Inspired Opinions), which adds up over the long term. But every once in a while I'll get asked to participate in an online focus group or an online discussion, which yields much higher payouts! I was dubious about the first one I did, but then ended up getting a $75 check in the mail a few weeks later!

--5--

Sell your books, games, DVDs, CDs...

Especially if you're like me and happen to have a bunch of old college textbooks lying around... Those things can be worth a mint! You know you paid a ton for them and aren't ever going to use them again, so why not sell them now before a new edition comes out? You can go the DIY route through various websites, or you can go the easy way and do Amazon trade-in - they'll estimate how much your old books, video games, DVDs, and CDs are worth and if you think it's worth it, you send them in and they'll give you Amazon credit! Every time we do a purge around here, we send them tons of stuff and make a decent amount of money with it.

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