I started couponing back in 2009. This was about a year before the extreme couponing craze took over. I did the extreme couponing for awhile and it definitely worked and saved me money, but it was very time-consuming. I now use a less extreme approach that only takes about 20 minutes a week and still saves me a lot of money. I know it can save you money too! Let me show you how to coupon without the extreme!

Please note this post may contain affiliate links, read my full disclosure here.

Step 1 – Become a Deliberate Shopper

In order to cut your grocery costs, you have to do more than clip coupons. While the coupons are an amazing tool, they are only a small part of the puzzle. In order for this to work, you must first shift your mentality and become very aware of what you’re buying, when you’re buying it, and if you’re getting a good deal. In order to save significant money, you’ll need to:

• Meal plan according to what’s on sale and what you have already at home
• Have an organized stock pile
• Rotate food to not let it expire
• Eliminate quick runs to the grocery store
• Use coupons combined with store sales

 

I’ll walk you through all these steps and teach you how to become a grocery shopping pro!

Step 2 – Get Coupons

Newspaper Coupons
Let’s start the old-fashioned way, newspaper inserts. The Sunday paper contains inserts from Smart Source, Red Plum, and Proctor & Gamble. These weekly inserts are a resource you’re going to want to utilize and contain valuable coupons. Back when I was doing a more “extreme” style of couponing, I subscribed to four Sunday papers and had friends and family give me their inserts. Now I have changed my approach and am only getting one Sunday paper, but I get it for free! I still try and get my hands on as many inserts as I can, but I don’t plan on going back to paying for the paper. Here are a few ways to get your Sunday ads for free. In Colorado, the Denver Post offers the Sunday Select, in Utah the Daily Herald has the same deal, and the Washington Post has Savings Now. These are condensed versions of the Sunday paper that contain only a few news stories, but all the ads. Since the ads are all we want anyway, it’s a perfect situation! Check your local paper to see if they offer a free Sunday ad edition or do a quick Google search to find one near you. If you aren’t able to get it delivered for free, here’s a few other options: ask a gas station, grocery store, or dollar store if you can have their leftover papers before they throw them out, ask friends and family that already subscribe to the Sunday paper to give you their inserts, or call the paper to see if they can give away old editions. If it comes down to paying for the paper, don’t pay more than $1/week.

If you want to take a look at what’s contained in the Sunday inserts, check out sunday-paper-coupons.com. They list how many inserts are in each paper and the specific coupons in those inserts. You can usually see about a week in advance what coupons will be coming!

Printable Coupons
The easiest source for getting coupons right now is to simply print them from your home computer.

Here are links to the most popular coupon giants.

Coupons.com
Smart Source
Red Plum
P&G

You will have to download a coupon printing program. This program prevents you from printing the coupons an unlimited amount of times. You can’t print them without it, so go ahead and install the coupon printing program. You are allowed to print the coupons twice so if you find a great deal make sure you get two of that coupon!

Lots of brands also offer coupons if you signup for their newsletters or take a survey. One of my favorite coupons is from being a member of Driscoll’s advisory panel. Once you have bought a Driscoll’s product, you take a survey on your satisfaction and get a printable coupon in return. It’s very simple and an easy way to save money on fruit! In the summertime, my grocery store will have blueberries and raspberries on sale for $1 which means I can use my $1/off coupon and stock up on free berries! Kellogg’s Family Rewards is another place that offers great printable coupons as well as rewards you can earn from buying their items.

Rebate Apps
The best new thing in couponing is rebate apps. These are free apps that you download on your phone and after you’ve purchased an item you submit your receipt and get money back. Check out my article here about My Top Grocery Coupon Apps. They include ibotta, checkout51, mobisave, and more! Read about all my favorite couponing apps here!

Ibotta is my favorite grocery coupon app. You download the app, unlock rebates, verify your purchase (scan a barcode or take picture of receipt), then they deposit cash into your account. You can combine ibotta rebates with coupons. For example, right now at my Kroger store, Land O Frost premium lunch meat is on sale for $3.99. I have a newspaper coupon from Smart Source for $.75 off. Kroger will double coupons (up to $1.00) so now the meat costs $2.99. But since I have an ibotta account, they have a $1.00 off rebate right now. So after I buy the meat for $2.99, I scan my receipt and $1.00 is added to my ibotta account. So the meat only cost $1.99 and it’s typically $4.99 when it isn’t on sale. By buying sale items, using a manufacturer coupon, and combined with the ibotta rebate you can score items for free or even make money on your purchase!

Use this link to sign up for ibotta and you’ll get a $10 bonus after your first rebate!
https://ibotta.com/r/rclwpdt

eCoupons
eCoupons are electronic coupons that are either on your store loyalty card or an app on your phone. I regularly add coupons to my grocery store loyalty card. It’s easy and definitely worth the few minutes it takes to search and load the ones you want. In addition to the ecoupons, my grocery store mails me personalized coupons since they have my address on file and track what I regularly buy. This means I get coupons for produce, store brand items, and coupons like $5 off when you spend $15 in the meat department. You must take advantage of store loyalty cards and programs. Many stores do them such as: Kroger (my favorite), Target, Safeway, etc.

For those of you who shop at Target, there are two easy ways to save money there. First, the Target ecoupons are available through their app Cartwheel. To use cartwheel, download the app, select the offers you want added to your account, then have your barcode scanned at checkout. The money comes off at checkout so it’s super simple. You will also want to use a Target credit or debit card to get 5% off. You get 5% off everything you buy so it’s a must-have for anyone shopping at Target!

Step 3 – Organize Your Coupons

I organize my newspaper and printable coupons using a large 3-ring binder, divider tabs, and 9-pocket plastic sheets (baseball card sleeves). As you can see, this binder is pretty beat up! I’ve been using it for years and it’s held together with packaging tape. I guess it’s about time to update it. I use divider tabs to organize the binder into categories. My categories include:

Produce, Meat, Baking, Breakfast, Boxed Goods, Canned Goods, Condiments, Drinks, Snacks, Frozen, Refrigerated, Paper Goods, Cleaners, Baby, Pets, Oral Care, Health Care, Hair Care, Hygiene, Skin Care, Beauty, and Misc.

I only clip and print the coupons I expect to use, then I file them accordingly. I keep my newspaper inserts in a drawer in my filing cabinet and I write the date on the cover of the insert. For example, on Sunday July 10th I got the Sunday paper, wrote 7/10 on the insert covers, flipped through the coupons, clipped the ones that I’ll most likely use, and then filed them in my binder. It took about 10 minutes. The reason I keep the inserts with the coupons I didn’t clip will become apparent in my next step.

Step 4 – Shopping the Sales

Where to Shop
If you have a coupon for a product you regularly buy then it’s easy to look at that coupon and think, “Awesome! This will save me $1.00”. But how does that lead you to save $100’s on your groceries? First off, you have to shop at a store that has sales. Back when I was first married and did not coupon I shopped at Walmart. I figured it’s probably cheaper than the other stores and I didn’t know any better. Now I rarely go there or to Costco or Sam’s. And when I do shop there I always come away shocked at how much I spent and how little I bought! I recommend Kroger (aka King Soopers, Fry’s, City Market, Smith’s, etc.), Safeway, Walgreens, Target, or any other stores that regularly have sales.

When to Shop
I was taught how to coupon by a friend who had been couponing for almost 20 years! She would get her Sunday paper, scan through the ads, match her coupons with the ads, and then plan her meals around those. It was effective, but very time-consuming. Now we have amazing resources at our fingertips from websites that do all the coupon matching for us! Here’s the #1 couponing tip – you don’t use a coupon just because you have it. What you do is wait until the item goes on sale and then use your coupon and buy as many of that item as you can! The scenario that really saves significant money is #1 – the item is on sale, #2 – you have a coupon for the item, #3 – you have an ibotta rebate or store coupon for the item. When the perfect storm of couponing goodness arises, you can typically get the item for free or even make money on your purchase. You should only plan on using your coupon when you have two of these three requirements met. Here are some of the websites I use to tell me the sales and coupon match-ups at my stores. These sites are the reason couponing is so simple. Before I make my shopping list, I check the store sales & coupon match-ups to make sure I’m not missing any deals.
Bargain Blessings
Krazy Coupon Lady
Coupon Mom
Sometimes you won’t have a coupon, but the store is still having a great sale and you know you’re getting a good price on something you regularly use, this is still an opportunity you should take advantage of. After all, you should consider yourself a “deliberate shopper” more than a couponer.

Step 5 – Stocking Up

The Importance of a Stock Pile
Now that you are a conscious shopper, you know to only buy items that are a good deal (sale, coupons, rebates). Remember, you don’t go shopping and just buy everything you need for the week and hand the checkout clerk two coupons, that’s not smart shopping. Let’s say the store is having a sale on General Mills cereal and your family regularly eats cereal. You don’t just grab one box and be happy, you get as many boxes as you can. The number you buy will depend on the number of coupons you have and how good the sale is. Most cereal coupons can be found in the Sunday paper, printed online, and have store coupons (and let’s hope an ibotta match). Let’s say you have 5 coupons to match this sale. If the coupon is $.50/2 boxes of GM cereal, then you will be buying 10 boxes. Most good couponing stores will double that $.50/off to $1.00/off (but we’ll get into store policies later). If you’re thinking, “what am I going to do with 10 boxes of cereal?” the answer is to add them to your stock pile. It’s not every week that you can buy cereal while it’s on sale AND you have a coupon so you must buy enough cereal to get you through until the next cereal sale. Most stores have sale cycles. For example, January will start out with health food on sale and then when the Super Bowl comes around party snack food will be on sale. August has back to school sales with juice boxes, granola bars, pudding, etc. Let’s go back to the cereal example and say the cereal is typically $3/box but with the sale and coupons you bought it for $1/box. Since you bought 10 boxes, that saved you $20! Building up a good stock pile is vital to saving significant money.

Patience…Build that Stockpile
For the first little while you aren’t going to see much of a difference in your grocery spending. In fact, you might spend more money the first few trips while you’re getting started. This is because you’re building up your stockpile, but don’t get discouraged. Back to the cereal example, when you bought those 10 boxes, you spent $10 on cereal. That’s a great deal, but if you typically only spend $3 and buy one box, your checkout price will be higher. The payoff comes after you’ve been couponing for awhile. If you eat one box of cereal a week, you won’t need to buy any more cereal for 10 weeks (or until there’s another awesome deal). You should buy enough to get you through to the next sale because you never want to go back to paying $3 for something you know you can get for $1.

After you’ve been doing this for a few months, you’ll have all your canned good, boxes good, frozen items, toiletries and more all purchased at amazing prices. Your shopping trips will only consist of buying a few perishables and stocking up on what’s on sale that day!

Organization
In order to avoid having items expire, you need to setup an organized and simple rotation system. To accommodate my stockpile, my husband built me some shelves in our basement so I can keep everything organized. There wasn’t enough room in our pantry. When I put my groceries away, I write on the box or can in big black letters the expiration date. That way when I go to grab some pasta, I know which pasta is expiring the soonest and I use it first. There are many great ideas on how to organize your stockpile. Find something that works for you so you don’t let your hard earned savings go to waste.

Becoming a deliberate shopper doesn’t happen overnight. If you can’t do everything I’ve mentioned right away, pick a few tips to help you get started. Don’t get discouraged or overwhelmed. You too can coupon without the extreme and save hundreds on your grocery bill with these simple, deliberate steps!

Welcome to my June and July 2017 income report! This income report will be combining June & July because summer is crazy busy with fun family stuff so I didn’t have time to update the June report on its own. Considering I didn’t do hardly any active work (most of this was passive income), I’m satisfied with the $1,400 I made.
Check out my past income reports here. My personal goal is to make as much money as I can from home while not sacrificing any of my family responsibilities. This means I’m cooking, cleaning, going on field trips, arranging play dates, driving to/from sports, etc. and then working from home in my “spare” time. I started My Income Journey to show you how it’s possible to make money and save money from home! I hope you can gain some insight into what works (or doesn’t) and improve your own income journey! I love being a stay at home mom and think everyone should have the option to make money from home!

This post contains affiliate links/ads, see my disclosure for details.

Why I Publish Income Reports

If it weren’t for other bloggers posting their income reports I would have never started this blog. I am so grateful for their willingness to be open, honest, transparent, and inspire me to get started blogging. Having a website can be an excellent income source that anyone can do! If you want to start a blog, read “How to start a Website in 4 Easy Steps”.

Total Income: $1,384.83

Income Breakdown

Photography – $334.97
I love selling stock photos because the income is completely passive once your photos are uploaded. If you want to learn how to get started with stock photography, check out all of my photography posts and tips!
Shutterstock – $215.85 (422 images on file)
istock – $109.29 (173 images on file)
Bigstock – $9.13 (154 images on file)
Dreamstime – $.70 (75 images on file)

Etsy – $511.74
I closed my shop for about 2 weeks while we were out of town, so these numbers are not even from a full two months of being open. Etsy has been a fun, profitable side hustle that I’m glad I started last year. Read my tutorial on How to Start an Etsy Shop!
June & July Orders: 65
Products Listed: 44

Piano Lessons – $242.50
Learn how to teach piano, what my favorite piano books are, how to sell music you compose, get free printables, and more!
Most of my students (and myself) take some piano breaks during the summer, so this number was lower than during the rest of the year.

Blogging – $214.43
Learn how to start your own blog here, it’s been a very rewarding source of income for me and anyone can do it from home!
Ads – $111.58
Affiliates – $102.85

Side Hustles & Rebate Apps – $81.19
As you can see, I have a lot of different side hustles! Check out my list of over 100 side hustle ideas here.
ibotta – $46.00 (referrals and rebates)
Checkout51  – $.25
MobiSave  – $.10
Shopmium – $1.00 (enter code KYGKMHGH for a free chocolate bar)
Swagbucks – $2.62
Inbox Dollars – $5.10
Ebates – $5.00
Zazzle – $2.42
Redbubble – $18.70

Now let’s take a look at the analytics for My Income Journey.

Blogging Stats

Facebook: 1,009 Page Likes (+57) – Woo Hoo! Over the 1k mark!
Pinterest: 2,432 Followers (+150) – Pinterest has been awesome thanks to ViralTag.
Twitter:   398 Followers (+12)
Website Pageviews: 14,397
Website Users: 8,910

Conclusion

Summer months are notoriously slow for bloggers, plus I took a few weeks off, didn’t teach many piano lessons, and overall didn’t work more than around 15 – 20 hours total these past two months, so $1,400 isn’t too shabby. It’s not quite up to my goal of $1,000 per month, but it’s getting there. My very first income report was July 2016 and I about doubled that income!

I started My Income Journey in July 2016 and it’s amazing to see how all these little work at home jobs really add up! See my cumulative  income reports here!

Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date on all my finance tips, tutorials, and updates. Plus, I have a few freebies coming out soon just for my email subscribers!!

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Getting a new piano student is exciting and a bit nerve-racking for me. Will this student enjoy piano? Will they be easy to teach? Will this new student have any musical talent? Will I enjoy teaching this student? There are so many unknowns, but there should also be excitement! The best way for me to be excited is for me to be prepared. If I know what I’m going to teach during the first few lessons then I can focus on making my new student feel calm, happy, and successful. Below are my tips for teaching your first piano lesson. Included are some free printables and awesome resources, so be sure to download those helpful sheets!

The first three lessons for me are the most difficult. Most students begin lessons with little or no prior music experience and there’s so much to teach them. Don’t get caught up in trying to explain EVERYTHING during this first lesson. Yes, you will explain a lot, but don’t give the child so much information as to overwhelm them.

I have created an outline for my first few lessons. This helps me stay organized, keeps the lesson flowing smoothly, and stops me from talking too much and trying to explain everything at once. Always keep in mind how your student feels during your lessons. This first lesson is particularly important. The new student is most likely anxious, excited, nervous, and ready to learn. Keep that enthusiasm up and make the first lesson great!

This page contains ads/affiliate links. See my full disclosure for details.

 

First Piano Lesson Outline

• Introductions!

1. Introduce yourself. Tell them how long you’ve been playing, how old you were when you learned, and why you enjoy playing the piano.

2. Let the student introduce themselves to you. Ask why he/she wants to learn to play? Do they know any songs already? Many kids have been taught something by an older sibling or parent or they might have sounded out “Mary had a Little Lamb”. Let them talk and show off without any corrections.

3. Introduce the piano. Explain the black key and white keys and their pattern. Have the student find these patterns. Show how the notes go from low to high, let the student experiment with really high and really low notes.

4. Introduce their new notebook. I make a notebook for all my students. It contains their Piano Assignments, theory pages, songs I print out, etc. Feel free to print these out and use them for your students too.

• The Musical Alphabet

1. Next, I teach the musical alphabet. I print out a few sets of these cards and line them up across the top of the piano. I have the student practice saying the alphabet forwards and backwards and let them line up the cards with me.

2. Show your student where middle C is. You’ve already pointed out the pattern of two black keys and three black keys., so use this to help identify where C is. Find all the C’s on the piano and teach middle C. Use the musical alphabet to learn all the notes on the piano. This is fun information for the new student to have. Challenge them with things like “find all the D’s on the piano”, etc.

• Playing Your First Song

1. Show the student how to properly sit at the piano. This could be a whole post in itself so until I get around to it, here’s a good reference point and tips from piano-play-it. The most common mistakes I have to fix early on are students curling their fingers “like t-rex” or playing “flat fingered”. Try to get them in the habit right away of good piano posture.

2. I then use this song called “Snakes” from http://www.music-for-music-teachers.com. It’s a good way for the student to practice keeping their form and start “reading” music. Explain how the notes go up and down and that the pitch goes up and down on the piano along with the music.

3. Using “Snakes”, explain that there are line notes and space notes. See how it alternates from line to space and we can step up from a line to a space or step down.

4. Next, I teach two songs that will help the student learn middle C in both clefs as well as B and D. These songs are from http://www.music-for-music-teachers.com. You might think a two note song is too simple, but remember there’s a lot to learn in these simple pieces. Assume the new student has never seen a staff, ledger lines, or notes before. You don’t need to explain everything, but getting them comfortable with real music and notes is a big step in this first lesson and they can do it!

• Using 5 Fingers

1. Use this worksheet to teach your student how their fingers will be labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and how this will be used in their books as they’re first learning the notes. 

2. Have your student hold up their hand and with their eyes closed they have to wiggle a certain finger. Say things like, “wiggle your second finger” or “wiggle your fourth finger”. Then have them put their hands on the piano keys and press the finger you say. I like to do this so they realize they don’t have to look at their hands to press the key.

3. Now that the student has been introduced to B, C, D and how fingering is marked, I let them jump right into the John Thompson “Teaching Little Fingers to Play” book. It’s exciting to get your first book and to leave the lesson being able to play a few songs. I teach them the first two songs, “Birthday Party” and “Sandman’s Near”. I don’t worry about the counting or measure lines in this lesson. I play the songs for them, let them try, and assign them to practice these two songs as well as the others we learned when they’re at home.

4. Homework – in addition to the songs they need to practice, I give my students these two simple note naming sheets (here and here) from theperfectstartforpiano.com. New students are typically (and hopefully) eager to learn and can be excited about having homework. Plus the songs that have been assigned are so short that it’s beneficial to give them something else piano related that they can work on right away. Remember, theory homework is not a punishment. Be excited and upbeat about what they’ll get to do at home without your help.

5. Be sure to praise your new student before they leave and tell them how excited you are that you get to teach them how to play the piano! Remind them of all the things they did well and what you want them to work on during the week. I also have a prize box that I let them pick from if they worked hard, stayed focused, and completed everything I asked them to do. I’ll discuss that more in another post, but ending with a prize is a fun surprise!

6. As their teacher, be sure you have ordered the following books to help your student get started. If you haven’t already, read my post about why I recommend these books series and the benefits to each of them.

I hope these tips on teaching your first piano lesson will help you and your students have an awesome first day! Read all my piano teaching tips here!

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Did you know you can make money with your photos? I make money with my photos every day! I sell my photos through multiple stock photography sites and I love it!! It’s an awesome way to make money from home! I’ve personally made over $4,000 by uploading my photos to these 5 websites!

I love stock photography for many reasons – I make money selling my photos, I use stock photos on this site, it’s improved my photography skills, and it’s a great way to test the waters if you’re an amateur photographer. If you haven’t already, read my post titled “Is Stock Photography Right for You?”. In that post, I go into the details of why I love it and how I got started.

Below are the five best stock photography sites to sell your photos online. I personally have accounts with all of them. They’re free to join, easy to use, and are a great way to get some passive income flowing!

This page contains ads/affiliate links. See my full disclosure for details.

1. Shutterstock

Shutterstock is easily my favorite site to contribute to and my definite #1 recommendation! I have made the most money with them and I have the most pictures with them.

• You earn anywhere from $0.25 to $120 per sale, depending on the license the customer buys. The majority of your sales will be $0.25, but you’ll get lots of them. The most I’ve ever been paid for one sale is $6.89.
• You get a raise as your overall earnings increase. Below is an image of their earnings breakdown. You can see that there’s a decent increase once you’ve made over $500.

• Shutterstock per image earnings may be small, but they’re frequent. I definitely wish they paid more than $0.25 for a download, but I do get the most downloads through them. You get a raise after you’ve made a certain amount of money with them, so now I’m getting $0.33 for my smallest payment.
• Shutterstock’s minimum payout amount is $35.
• It is easy to upload and edit multiple photos to Shutterstock at once. This is a big deal and the main reason I have more photos at Shutterstock than iStock. If iStock would make their upload process easier, then I would have lots more photos with them.
• Shutterstock helps you keyword. I like this feature, you can search for images similar to yours and get keyword ideas. This helps me use up all 50 of my keywords which is very important in getting your photos found.
• Shutterstock has a quick turnaround time with getting images approved. I typically only wait about 24 hours to get the notice that my images were approved or not.
• You can include a note to the person reviewing your photos if you need to explain something or have a concern about why it was rejected. I’ve had to do this and it was very easy and resolved my problem.
• Minimum file size to submit is 4MP which is fairly small and easy to accomplish.

2. iStock

iStock ranks #2 on my list because it has paid me the 2nd most in earnings and how much I get paid greatly influences how much I like a site.

• In order to become a contributor at iStock, you first have to pass a test. Don’t worry, it isn’t difficult, but you do need to read their manual and answer some basic questions. Don’t let this stop you, you should know the answers if you’re going to sell your work there anyway.
• iStock’s minimum payout is $100. This is a bit high when you’re first getting started.
• iStock really wants you to upload exclusively to them. Shutterstock doesn’t offer this option, but iStock will pay more if you become an exclusive contributor. You have to meet specific requirements before getting accepted as exclusive, but there are so many sites where you can sell your images that I don’t recommend this route. Here are their royalty rates.

• Typically I get paid around $1.00 each time someone downloads my photo.
• iStock’s upload process is tedious. I stick with them because I make decent money through them, but I really wish they’d change their upload process. You have to upload each picture individually and keyword them individually as well as categorize them and then they want you to specify words that can have multiple meanings. For example, if you have a picture of a kid they want you to clarify if “kid” is referring to a young person or a baby goat.
• iStock has been around a long time and has a good reputation. Many people are loyal to them so they have a good customer base.
• iStock accepts files 1600 x 1200 pixels or larger, which is an easy requirement to meet. iStock offers different sizes of each image on the site and our file pricing is based in part on the image dimensions, so it’s often in your best interest to provide an image in the largest pixel dimensions possible.

3.Dreamstime

• Dreamstime has been pickier than iStock and Shutterstock for me. I have a lot of images that are editorial use only and they don’t accept the type of editorial that mine are. They’ve also rejected images because they have too many similar ones on their site already.
• You are paid according to your photo’s level. The level depends on how often the photo sells, if the photo is exclusive to Dreamstime, and if you’re an exclusive contributor. I do like that they let you have specific images that are exclusive without being completely exclusive to them. Here are their level 1 payouts.

• The least you’ll ever get paid through Dreamstime is $0.34. The first image I sold there I got $2.00 and that’s not too bad. If your image gets up to level 5 (which means it’s been downloaded more than 25 times), then the least you’ll make is $6.73 per sale. That’s a great payout for an extra small image that isn’t exclusive.
• Their upload process is pretty simple and not as time-consuming as iStock, but their image approval process can take longer.
• Photos must be at least 3MP.
• Dreamstime has good account statistics and an easy to use contributor account interface.

4.Big Stock

• To become a contributor you have to read their tutorial and take a short quiz. Just like iStock, it’s a simple quiz so don’t let this stop you.
• Big Stock has been my 3rd highest paying stock site, but I ranked it under Dreamstime because it doesn’t have the large customer base that Dreamstime does and it doesn’t have the same pay potential.
• The minimum requirement for a Bigstock photo is 800 pixels on the longest side.
• Bigstock’s uploading process is simple and quick. You can upload and tag multiple images at once.
• Payouts are given weekly once you have reached $30. They’re one of the few sites that pay you more than monthly.
• Bigstock will pay you more based on how many sales you’ve had, but their highest subscription payout is $0.38 per download.

5.123rf

• 123rf barely squeaks in as my #5. They’re about neck and neck with Fotolia, but they win out because I can’t figure out how much I’ve earned with Fotolia since they display my earnings as credits.
• 123rf requires your photos to be at least 6MP. This is hard if you’re uploading 4MB images to other sites and don’t want to edit photos separately for 123rf than for the other stock sites. Ideally, all your images are over 6MP and this isn’t a problem, but it can be for some images that aren’t sharp enough at over 6MP but are fine at 4MP.
• 123rf has an alright upload process. It isn’t as smooth as Shutterstock, but it’s better than iStock.
• Your earnings per download at 123rf are pretty simple. They don’t have an exclusivity option, but you do get paid more depending on your contributor level.

• 123rf’s minimum payout amount is $50, paid monthly
• 123rf has been growing and increasing in popularity recently. It’s worth giving them a try if you have enough time to upload to multiple sites.

There are many other stock photo agencies out there, but these made the cut as my top five best stock photography sites to sell your photos online. Two honorable mentions that I just recently joined are CanStock Photo and Deposit Photos.  Want to see how much I make on my stock photos? Check out my income reports here! All my photography articles and tips can be found here.

Stock photography is an awesome way to make money from home! I love checking these sites and seeing how much I’ve made. Once your photos are up there they make money over and over without you having to do anything. What else are you going to do with those hundreds of pictures taking up space on your hard drive? Get them working for you!

Are you new to photography and not sure how to even use that DLSR camera you got for Christmas five years ago? Still shooting on auto mode? Then I recommend taking an online class through CreativeLive. This site is an excellent place to learn all sorts of skills that can earn you money from home. Check out CreativeLive here!

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Are you ready to create a website of your own?! It’s awesome! I highly recommend it!!!  You can start a personal or professional blog, create a site for your current business, start an online store, improve your writing and computer skills, teach your kids how to start a website, and, of course, make money from your site. You will have total control to create the look and function of your website if you follow this 4-step process. Follow these simple steps and get ready to learn a lot, make some money, and have fun with your new creation!

This page contains ads/affiliate links. See my full disclosure for details.

 

In order to have a professional site, you must be willing to pay for the hosting. You can start a free blog with Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress, but then your site will always be an extension of their domain, like www.myincomejourney.tumblr.com. If you plan on making money from your website, then you need to have complete control and be professionally hosted. With the free options, you can basically edit your text and a few colors, but not create the custom site that you’ll want. Follow these four steps to create your individual website that you can use to make money from home.

 

Step 1 – Pick Your Host

The company that hosts your website is basically the company that makes it available on the internet. They provide your storage space as well as internet connectivity, so it’s very important to have a good host. I highly recommend using Bluehost to host your site. Plus if you use them, you will get your domain name for free. I had a different site a few years ago with GoDaddy and wasn’t impressed by them. My site got hacked and some malware on it and it was completely up to me to get rid of it. Plus GoDaddy’s interface isn’t nearly as user-friendly as Bluehost.

Once you’ve decided to go with Bluehost, use my link to get the $3.95/month hosting. You’ll see a screen similar to the image below, click the “get started now” button.

After clicking “get started now”, you’ll be taken to a page to select your plan. I recommend either the “basic” plan or the “plus” plan. I went with the “plus” plan because my husband also started a site and we wanted the unlimited websites and space. If your budget is tight, then the “basic” plan will work just fine.

Step 2 – Register Your Domain

After you select your plan, you’ll be taken to a screen to officially register your domain. It’s exciting to make this step and to own a piece of cyber property! If you haven’t already picked out a domain name, you should read my post on how to choose a domain name here. It goes through the details of how to pick a great name, check if it’s available on multiple platforms, and a few legal issues.

Enter your domain name in the “new domain” box, unless you’ve already purchased your domain from somewhere else (like GoDaddy).

Next, you’ll enter in your account information.

Now select an account plan. If you notice, the $3.95/month is only available if you pay for 36 months. You can choose if you want to pay for 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years, and the price differences are there for you to consider. Any of these options are a great deal for a professional site that includes the domain name purchase.

Notice that I selected the “Domain Privacy Protection”. I recommend doing this in order to keep your personal information private. All website owner’s information is available through Whois.net and other sites. Bluehost offers this privacy protection that will put Bluehost’s information available for the public to see rather than your own information. If you’re using a business address and phone number, then you probably don’t need the privacy, but if you’re using personal info then I think it’s smart. I skip the other extras.

All you have left to do is enter your payment information and then your hosting and domain are set!

Step 3 – Install WordPress

Now we’re going to install WordPress. WordPress is the largest self-hosting blogging tool in the world and used by millions of websites. WordPress is software that gives you the ability to add plug-ins, widgets, create mailing lists, and more. It’s free and easily integrates with Bluehost.

Login to Bluehost and go to your control panel. Click the “install WordPress” button.

Be sure to create a unique admin username and password. This is what you’ll use to login to WordPress once it’s installed. Click “install now” and you’re all set with WordPress! Once it’s installed, you’ll be given an admin URL similar to this http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin. This URL is where you’ll go when you want to write posts, work on your site, etc. You’re basically done with the Bluehost side of things and you’ll just be dealing with WordPress now.

Step 4 – Designing Your Website

This part is really fun! Spend some time thinking about how you want the layout of your site. It’s much easier to set it up correctly the first time rather than change your mind and move everything around over and over again.

WordPress requires the implementation of a theme. A theme defines the look and feel of your website including colors, decorative features, and styles. Themes may also include advanced features such as post types, visual editors, contact forms, and more. When you first install WordPress, it will come with several free themes already installed. These themes are produced by WordPress themselves and are called “Twenty Sixteen”, “Twenty Fifteen” and so on depending on what year you start using WordPress. They can be found in the “Appearance -> Themes” part of your WordPress toolbar. To start using a theme you simply click on the “Activate” button next to the theme description.

The free themes may be fine for beginners and include the basic post types, namely blog posts and static web pages. However, I recommend going with a paid theme right from the beginning. It can be a daunting task switching themes after having implemented one for even a short period of time and you’ll quickly find out that the free themes don’t have all the features and flexibility you need. Free themes also don’t get updated as often, if at all, as the paid themes. This is a big deal if a new malware threat or WordPress update renders your website unusable. Developers of themes that cost money have an incentive to keep their themes compatible with WordPress updates and free of malware. Look for a paid theme that offers free lifetime updates. Paid themes quite often come with support for six months to a year with an option to pay for continued support. Thus if you run into an issue with the implementation of the theme, you can write or call the developers and get expert help. Another huge benefit of most paid themes is extras and add-ons that go beyond standard WordPress. These extras can really make your website standout in the crowd. Paid themes can be found in several places. Go to the “Marketplace” in your WordPress toolbar and you’ll be able to search for themes and other plugins via the Mojo Marketplace. The Mojo Marketplace isn’t the only place to buy themes and a quick search on the web will find others. I recommend going with a theme from a trusted developer. A little time finding the right theme now will save lots of headaches down the road.

I personally use and highly recommend the “Total” theme which is available via Theme Forest, another online theme marketplace. Like the name suggests, Total is the total theme. A few things set Total apart from the competition. First, it comes bundled with several plugins that by themselves would cost close to a hundred dollars. The “Visual Composer” plugin allows webpages to be created using an intuitive visual composer rather than raw html. This allows you to create awesome custom sites without knowing any programming language.

In addition to the basic post and page types, Total adds portfolio, staff, and testimonial types. These additional types can be customized as desired. For example, on another website I own, I changed the “portfolio” to “books”. The real power of these types is that they allow for custom filtering and categorization. Filtering is a powerful tool that enables other great features of the Total theme: grids and sliders. Grids and sliders are graphical design elements that allow for eye-popping display of graphics on your webpage which can be automatically filtered and sorted either by your visitors or you. The Total theme also comes with WooCommerce integration and custom contact forms. I have found that the Total theme is also updated rapidly. For example, WordPress recently released a major update. Less than a week later, I received an update to the Total theme to ensure compatibility. I’ve also taken advantage of their included six months of service to get answers to my development questions. Their help has been rapid and spot on. At about $59, the Total theme is one of the more expensive paid themes but with all the premium included plugins, such as the visual composer, excellent support, timely updates, and provided flexibility, the price is well worth it. Examples of what Total is capable of, in addition to my website, can be found here. Detailed tutorials describing all the great features are found here. And when you are ready to purchase, I’d appreciate it if you’d use my affiliate link here. Using my affiliate link won’t increase the price for you but goes a long way to helping my website stay active.

That’s it! You are now all setup and ready to make a custom, professional, unique website. Having your own website or blog is an incredible experience and a lot of fun! Sign up for my newsletter to receive website tips, freebies, and other money-saving and money-making ideas!

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Don’t miss these awesome articles! Read all my tips about blogging here.

“Best Blogging Tools and Plugins”

“My Top 6 Affiliate Programs for Any Blogger”

“Social Media Scheduling”

“100 Blog Post Ideas”

I began learning to play the piano when I was six years old, my mom taught me. She also taught many neighborhood kids and continues to teach her grandkids. I’m so thankful music has been a part of my life. I love playing the piano! As I grew older I added the trumpet, guitar, and French horn to my list of instruments I can play, but it all started with the piano. When my oldest child was six years old, I decided I wanted to teach him to play. Not long after that, I had friends approaching me asking if I’d teach their kids and I now have eleven students (counting my own three kids)! I have many piano teaching tips and things I’ve learned along the way, but this post will focus on my favorite piano books for beginners. The books you choose to teach from can make a huge difference in the enjoyment and willingness to practice for each kid. It’s very important you find good books that mesh well with your teaching style and your students enjoy! Here are some of my favorites!

This page contains ads/affiliate links. See my full disclosure for details.

Faber Piano Adventures

Hands down, the Faber series has been my favorite! (get it, hands down? ha!) Their primer books are very simple and would work with 5-6 year olds. I actually had to skip some of it with my students because it progressed slower than they needed, but I still highly recommend it.

The majority of the songs have a simple teacher duet at the bottom which I love. Playing the duets really helps my students stay on beat and improve their counting.

My very favorite Faber book so far is the 2a and 2b Piano Adventures. Lots and lots of songs that boys and girls enjoy. Not quite as many teacher duets as the levels get harder, but still quite a few. The series teaches chords and how to play a melody with your right hand and add in the chords yourself with your left. I didn’t learn that until I was older and wish I would have learned that earlier. My students have really enjoyed supplementing with the performance book as well.

If you teach piano or your kids play and you haven’t tried this series then you’re missing out. I love it!

John Thompson Series

The John Thompson book, “Teaching Little Fingers to Play” was the first piano book I bought to teach my son. Unlike Faber, it jumps right into note reading with the full staff displayed. I personally like this approach, especially if your student is older than 5. Younger kids need the slower, simpler pace of the Faber primer, but I’ve started all of my students with “Teaching Little Fingers to Play”. All my students have LOVED the final song in the Little Fingers book which is “From a Wigwam”. They’ve all memorized it without me even asking them to.

The next book in the John Thompson series is “The First Grade Book”. It has some really great pieces that sound beautiful and I love listening to my students play them. There are no teacher duets and this book progresses very quickly! You are playing two hands together all the time, there are lots of accidentals and various key signatures, but they aren’t impossibly hard. Your student will feel very accomplished playing these pieces as this book has more of a classical and professional feel than some of the cutesy newer books.

The Second Grade Book gets difficult very quickly. It is not similar to the level 2 Faber or other level 2 books I’ve tried. If you have older students or a student that can move at a quick pace then this series is perfect. Once my students reach book two in this series I begin using it to supplement the Faber series and rely more heavily on Faber because of the difficulty level in book 2.

John Thompson also has another series called “Easiest Piano Course”. These are shorter pieces and a bit more fun than his Modern Course I discussed earlier. I like them alright and use them with a few students.

My very favorite Faber book so far is the 2a and 2b Piano Adventures. Lots and lots of songs that boys and girls enjoy. Not quite as many teacher duets as the levels get harder, but still quite a few. The series teaches chords and how to play a melody with your right hand and add in the chords yourself with your left. I didn’t learn that until I was older and wish I would have learned that earlier. My students have really enjoyed supplementing with the performance book as well.

If you teach piano or your kids play and you haven’t tried this series then you’re missing out. I love it!

Using Both Faber and Thompson

My top recommendation for beginner piano students is to use Faber AND John Thompson. Let me show you what you’ll learn from each book that makes them both necessary.

Faber

• Progresses more slowly
• Only marks some fingering
• Lots of teacher duets
• Newer, fun songs
• Chords and lead sheet
• Transposing
• Fun lyrics

John Thompson

• Progresses quickly
• Marks most fingering
• Almost no teacher duets
• Classic and difficult sounding songs
• Variety of key signatures and time signatures
• Scales
• Hand positioning, syncopation, and styles

As you can see, they both books teach many essential elements and I think you’ll enjoy both series. My main reason for using them in tandem is that John Thompson marks the fingering a lot and Faber doesn’t. Because of this, the John Thompson songs are harder and the student gets the feel of playing more difficult pieces with hands together early on, but with Faber the student must read the notes and not rely on fingering being marked. It’s a perfect combination!

If you teach or play piano, leave a comment below with your favorite books and why. Or let me know if you have any questions! I’ll be posting more piano tips soon, sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with My Income Journey!

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Print on Demand (POD) sites are my new favorite thing! I love opening my email and reading “You’ve made a sale” and knowing I don’t have to do anything except go “yay”! POD sites are a great option for making money from home. It’s a very similar feel to making money from stock photography, which I have also greatly enjoyed. Once setup, you can enjoy passive income, work when you have time, not have to deal directly with customers, takes no money upfront, and has good earning potential (probably more than stock photos).

What is Print on Demand?

The term Print on Demand (POD) basically means the product is not printed until someone purchases it (or it is demanded). It has been used for awhile with books to limit risk and inventory. You could order a book, the publisher would print it, and then it would be sent to you. This same concept has evolved into art and photography which is what I’m going to focus on here. It is no longer necessary to be a starving artist setting up a tent on a street corner hoping someone stops to buy your masterpiece. You can now upload your art to all these sites and sell them as fine art canvas prints, posters, 5x7s, mugs, t-shirts, pens, and more! It can be seen by thousands of people all over the world and it doesn’t cost you a dime. That’s what I’m talking about!

The process is simple. You upload your art and most sites let you set your price. Someone buys your art, you get a notification that it sold, you and the POD website both get a cut of the profit, then the POD site handles printing the order, shipping, and all customer service. All you have to do is upload your artwork and wait for the sales. There are definitely tips to getting more sales and promoting your art, but overall it’s a simple as I just described.

I am a photographer, I have a tiny bit of graphic design skill, and absolutely no artist ability with a pencil or brush. The sites listed below will accept all types of artwork so whatever your skill is, give this a try. If you don’t think you’re an “artist”, then I’ll laugh and say neither was I two years ago. Teach yourself, read tutorials, put your work out there, and see if it sells. It’s a fun and low-risk ride.

1. Red Bubble

I’m ranking Red Bubble as my #1 favorite POD site because I’ve earned the most money with them. Here are some of their highlights:

• Sell your art on lots of items – shirts, stickers, mugs, pillows, iPhone cases, prints, etc.
• Easy to use interface
• Fast upload process
• Simple process to edit your art and get it properly sized for all the different items
• Free to join
• Set your own margins/pricing

 

2. Zazzle

Zazzle has been around since 2003 and has over 300 million unique items for sale on their site.

• Lots of products to sell your art on – hats, mousepads, calendars, ping-pong equipment, puzzles, and lots more!
• Pick your own royalty amount from 5% – 99%
• Lots of traffic
• Great tutorials and helpful tips to improve your products
• Create your own store through them

 

3. Fine Art America

Fine Art America focuses more on selling premium art, attracting high-quality artists, and keeping their company run by a small staff. Here’s a good article about their business model here.

• Set your own prices
• Ability to sell your products in retail locations
• License your artwork for television or sell the rights
• Sell framed prints, canvas, shower curtain, greeting cards, and a few other options
• Standard account is free, premium account $30/year
• Sell originals

 

4. Society6

• Lots of products to print on – towels, print, bags, leggings, shirts, etc.
• Set your own profit amount on prints, but not on other items (everyone makes $2.40 for a tank top sale)
• Really nice mock-up of the items
• It’s difficult to put your image on multiple items because they have different size requirements for each picture so it’s much more tedious than other sites
• Good quality on their products, I ordered a shirt from them
• Free to sell through them

 

5. Cafe Press

• Automatically scale and position your art to fit the products so you don’t have to spend the time to do it manually.
• Over 250 products to put your designs on
• No upfront cost to start a shop, but they deduct 10% (up to $10) of your royalties when they pay you
• You choose your markup amount, but they charge an additional fee if you mark it up more than $15.
• Bonus levels so the more you sell the more you make
• Create official products for movie and tv shows fan pages

 

6. Printer’s Studio

• The quality of their work was good. I tested a mousepad and pencil pouch and was happy with both.
• Offer a lot of different products to print your art on – flip flops, playing cards, pillows, bandanas, etc.
• Minimum payout $20
• Set up your own shop

 

7. CowCow

• Setup your own store
• Pick your profit margins
• Offer a 3 tiered system with your shop being free and then as your profits grow you will pay a certain amount per month for a higher tiered store.
• Lots of items to upload your art to – camera case, magic cube, earrings, etc.

 

8. Deviant Art

• Not as many products to put your art on, but it’s good quality and popular with artists.
• Popular site to showcase your art.
• Lots of interaction and feedback from other artists in the community

 

9. Spreadshirt

• Set your own commissions
• Free to upload your art
• Primarily a t-shirt company, but they also sell mugs, phone cases, and a few other accessories
• Create your own free shop for your blog or website

 

10. Skreened

• Free to sell and open a shop
• Set your own commissions
• Mostly clothing focused, but have a few other items like mugs and pillows
• Browse by topic and create a niche for yourself

If you have an type of artistic ability and a bit of time to upload your images, definitely give these POD sites a try. They’re an awesome way to get your art seen by thousands, build a brand for yourself, see what’s popular, work from home, and earn money all without any upfront start-up costs.

If you have experience with POD sites, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me or comment below and share what you’ve learned in your POD journey!

 

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Couponing has changed A LOT in the last 10 years and coupon apps are one of the best new additions to the couponing game! When I started couponing back in 2009 I had a phone that was pay per text and definitely wasn’t smart. Technology has changed our lives in so many ways including how we coupon. My shopping strategy today is not the same as back in 2009. I LOVE coupon apps in addition to my clipping coupons, shopping sales, and stock piling.These apps listed below are the best grocery coupon apps around. I use them, they’re legit, and easy to use. If you take advantage of these resources and spend a small amount of time being deliberate about your shopping then you’ll see why this new trend in coupon apps is so popular. If you haven’t read my article, “How to Coupon Without the Extreme”, I recommend reading it to get the full picture of how to cut your grocery spending. These apps are just one piece of the food shopping puzzle.

This page contains ads/affiliate links. See my full disclosure for details.

1.  Ibotta

Ibotta is my favorite grocery shopping app! It’s been around since 2011, has over 50,000 5-star app reviews, and is very user-friendly. This is how it works: before you go shopping you unlock the rebates you plan on using. You unlock a rebate by doing a simple task like answering a one question survey or watching a short video. You can get rebates on specific items or generic things like a loaf of bread. After the rebates are unlocked you go shopping as usual. After you’ve bought the products that match the rebates you scan their barcode and then submit a photo of your receipt. Ibotta will deposit the rebate into your Ibotta account within 48 hours. You can transfer the money from your ibotta account to Paypal, Venmo, or request a gift card once you’ve reached $20. If you use my link to sign up for ibotta, you’ll get $10 in your account right now! Gotta love free money! If you aren’t already using ibotta then you’re missing out, they’re awesome! There are many apps that function the same as ibotta, but ibotta has the most rebates that match up with what I regularly buy and that’s why I rank them as #1.

2. Checkout 51

Checkout 51 is very similar to ibotta and I highly recommend it too! Here’s how it works: every Thursday morning they update their offers, all you have to do is go shopping like normal and buy the whichever offers that they’re currently featuring, then upload a photo of your receipt through their app or website. Once your account reaches $20 they’ll mail you a check.  One thing I like about them is that you can use your computer or phone to upload your receipts so if you don’t have a smartphone you don’t miss out on their deals. Some offers can be claimed multiple times, you can shop at any store, and the app is very easy to use! Definitely give them a try if you haven’t already!

3. MobiSave

MobiSave is right up there with ibotta and checkout51. They have the same style rebate format – select your items, go shopping, take a picture of your receipt, and get cash back. It’s so easy! A few highlights about MobiSave – shop at any store, get paid within 24 hours, and best of all is there’s no minimum for a payout. The money goes right to your Paypal account after it’s been approved! That’s a huge bonus that I love about MobiSave! The money gets credited back to you so quickly and easily and you don’t have to request it. If you’d be so kind to use my referral code it’s VQNOJCPU.

4. Cartwheel by Target

Cartwheel is an app specifically for Target and not a rebate app like the previous three I’ve mentioned. If you’re shopping at Target and not using Cartwheel then you’re missing out. Cartwheel is an app that offers 5% – 50% off a variety of items at Target. It’s very easy to use and I always check it when I’m shopping at Target. You simply select the offers you plan to use, then have your barcode the app created on your phone scanned when you check out, the money is taken off at the register. You can use Cartwheel in addition to your 5% Target card savings and in addition to Target coupons.

5. Walmart Savings Catcher

I don’t normally shop at Walmart because they don’t have the sales cycles or coupon doubling that makes my coupon strategy work. However, when I do shop there or for those of you that regularly do then you’ll want this app. Walmart’s Savings Catcher will match the lowest competitor’s price to the same product you bought at Walmart. For example, if you buy laundry detergent at Walmart for $3 and another store is advertising the same detergent for $2.50, then you’ll get $.50 credited to your account. The money in your account can be used towards a Walmart gift card and there’s no minimum payout necessary. This app is very easy to use, all you have to do is scan the bottom of your receipt with the app or enter your receipt code online and the app does the price matching. Just to let you know, this doesn’t work with store advertised sales like buy one get one free or buy 5 save $5 (which happens at Kroger a lot). That is why I still save more money by shopping at other stores besides Walmart, but when I do shop there I scan my receipt just in case.

6. Shopmium

Shopmium is another app where you upload a photo of your receipt and they give you money back. It’s simple to use, there’s no minimum payout, and money can be deposited into Paypal or your bank account. The only things stopping me from using Shopmium more often is they don’t accept receipts from Kroger or its affiliates (King Soopers, Smiths, etc.) and that’s where I typically shop. They do have good rebates though and if you use my referral link you can get a free Lindt chocolate bar! Be sure to enter this code to get your free chocolate: KYGKMHGH.

7. BerryCart

BerryCart is a money saving app for healthy food only. It’s all about organic, gluten-free, and non-GMO. It’s similar to ibotta and the others in how it works. First, you select the food you’re planning on buying, then you learn a quick little fact about it, the rebate is loaded to your account and you claim it by submitting a photo of your receipt. Within 24 hours BerryCart will send you money that can be through PayPal or a gift card. Super easy and it rewards healthy eating!

8. SavingStar

SavingStar is another option for uploading a photo of your receipt and getting money back. One difference with SavingStar is they reward you for buying lots of the same item (which I like to do when I stock up on good sales). They offer many rebates similar to “spend $14 on detergent, save $4”. You can cash out once you have $5 in your account and it can be transferred to a Paypal account or bank account. They aren’t as quick to approving your receipts as some of the other apps I’ve mentioned and they ask for 2 – 22 days to send you the money.

9. Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog adds a fun twist to the receipt submitting arena. They’re actually a market research company that focuses on consumer goods. You send them a photo of your receipt and instead of getting money back on specific items (like the coupon apps above), you get coins. You can use your coins to play and win on their virtual slot machines, take paid surveys, win trips, and more! You can also redeem your coins for money via Paypal or Amazon gift card. The amount of coins you have isn’t linear with the payout amount. For example, 1000 coins = $5 and 4500 coins = $30 so it’s best to be patient before cashing out.

10. Ebates

I love Ebates! I’m listing it as #10 here because it isn’t a grocery money savings app for the most part, but it is a great way to save money on pretty much all online shopping. If you’re shopping virtually anywhere, check ebates first. You can save money at Amazon, Kohls, Walmart, Groupon, etc. All you do is click the link through ebates and then do your normal online shopping. You’ll receive a percentage back on what you’ve spent. Ebates will mail you a check every quarter if you have over $5 in your account. It’s that simple. If you use my link to sign up then you’ll get a $10 bonus after making your first purchase.

If you haven’t started taking advantage of these awesome money-saving apps yet, then sign up now! They’re all free and can be used in addition to paper coupons and e-coupons. Let me know if you have any questions about these or if you have any apps you’d recommending adding to the list! Happy Saving!!

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One of the easiest ways to earn a few bucks is by taking surveys. You can start right away, they’re easy to do, no risk, and you can do them at your convenience. But let’s be real here, you aren’t going to replace a full-time income by doing surveys. They have their place and I do them here and there, but they aren’t a way to get rich quick or to get rich slowly, you aren’t going to get rich with surveys. But, if you have ten minutes to spare, you do them while watching tv, you want to make an extra $50/month, you’re stuck at a job with nothing to do, then go ahead and earn yourself a little bit of extra income.  The sites I’m going to recommend below are all survey companies that I have signed up with and know are reputable. There are many scummy surveys sites out there, so be careful. A few rules to keep yourself safe: you should never be required to pay to signup or to take a survey, don’t give credit card or personal ID information, and don’t signup for other websites that you might get linked to from the survey. If you are unsure about a survey site being legit you can check www.surveypolice.com to read reviews.

I could list 50 different survey companies for you to sign up that I know nothing about, but instead I’m going to give you the six sites that I’ve registered with. There are lots more out there that are legit in addition to these, but the sites below have been good to me and I feel comfortable recommending them. Here they are in no particular order:

This page contains ads/affiliate links. See my full disclosure for details.

American Consumer Opinion has been around since 1986 when people were mailing in their surveys or doing them by phone. Since then they’ve grown to several million members. An average survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and the questions are easy to answer. You must accumulate 1,000 points to cash out (which is $10). Sign up for American Consumer Opinion here.

Vindale refers to their surveys as “studies”. They also offer reward codes through social media and product testing (which I haven’t tried), but I have done their surveys. They don’t deal with points, just dollar amounts. You have to reach $50 to get a payout, it’s a bit high, but they have lots of survey opportunities. You can get your money via Paypal or they’ll mail you a check. Click here to sign up with Vindale Research.

Swagbucks is the site I’ve personally made the most money with! Not only can you make money with surveys, you can watch videos, play games, search the web, and shop online to make money. There are lots of ways to maximize your Swagbucks potential, read “How I Make Money with Swagbucks” to learn tips specifically for this site. You can cash out your earning through Paypal or gift cards. The lowest payout is typically a $5 Amazon gift card for 500 Swagbucks, but they also have better alternatives like a $25 Amazon gift card for 2,200 SB. Their payout offers vary but you can usually get better payouts with the big points that are discounted. If you haven’t tried Swagbucks then I recommend you do, they’re a fun alternative to the survey only sites. Sign up for Swagbucks here.

Opinion Outpost is a survey company where you earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards or cash via Paypal. They offer a $10,000 quarterly drawing that you get entered into every time you take a survey (which I haven’t won yet). Their minimum payout is $5 for an Amazon gift card (50 points) or $10 for Paypal (100 points) which is lower than most survey sites. Click here to sign up with Opinion Outpost.

InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks in that it offers multiple ways to make money online in addition to their surveys. They reward you for redeeming coupons (which I love of course), shopping online, playing games, taking surveys, searching the web, clicking an email, etc. You must earn $30 to cash out. Their surveys typically pay between $.50 – $5.00. Use this link to sign up and get $5.00 in your account!

Amazon Mechanical Turk or mturk was the first survey type company I tried and I still do hits (as they’re called in mturk) with them today. I wrote a detailed article about mturk here. Mturk is an Amazon company and legit. They are not just a survey company but offer all sorts of small jobs such as transcription, rating search results, translating, inputting values from an image, etc. Basically, companies are paying you to be a worker and perform simple tasks that can be done online. The surveys are typically the best pay for your time unless you have a skill like translating French to English or are an experienced transcriber. There is a reddit forum that lists the best mturk jobs available that I use to maximize my time. There’s no minimum payout and your earnings are transferred directly to your Amazon account.

My advice is to sign up with each of these companies, give them a try, and then decide which ones you like best and want to focus on. Some of them, like American Consumer Opinion, don’t always have surveys that you qualify for every day so you need multiple survey companies if you’re going to do this on a regular basis. I setup a separate survey email account so my personal account didn’t get overwhelmed with surveys or offers and so far I haven’t had any spam in that account. I can log in to that email when I have time for surveys or quickly in the morning to see what’s available. And just to reiterate, you aren’t going to make a full-time income taking surveys, you can maybe make around $6/hr. But if you can do 30 minutes a day or set a goal of $5 per day, then adding $100 per month with very little effort can add up.

If you want to see my entire list of over 40 survey companies, click here! There are tons of good companies just waiting for you to sign up!!

 

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No matter what your income level or where you are in life, there are financial habits that we should all be doing. You’ve probably heard of the lottery winner or NBA player who has millions to their name but ends up declaring bankruptcy within five years of coming into that money. That can happen to any of us at any income level if we are not careful with our finances. Below are 10 tips to help you take control of your finances.

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This is step one for a reason! You can’t set a budget, plan for retirement, pay down debt, or cut back your spending if you don’t know where your money is going. When I say track your money, I mean every. single. dollar. My husband and I have been tracking our finances since our first month of marriage and it has made all the difference. We can easily compare how much we spend in groceries now vs two years ago, how much we spend eating out each month, track our bills, watch our net worth increase, and set goals for where we think we can improve. We know how much we need in income to live comfortably, we know if we can afford a vacation or if that should wait, and tracking our finances lowers our stress levels because we are in complete control of our money.

It’s easier than ever to track your spending, investments, bills, etc. because the majority of what we spend is available online. I prefer to use credit cards over cash because it’s easier to track my credit card spending and I get a % back for using my card. About once a month my husband and I sit down together and import the data from our bank accounts, credit cards, etc. into Quicken. There are many finance tracking resources available: Quicken, You Need a Budget, Mint, Personal Capital, or create your own excel spreadsheet.

Now that you know where you’re spending all your money, take control of where you’re spending it. An easy place to start is by budgeting non necessities like eating out, buying clothes, recreation, etc. The programs I mentioned in #1 will help you create your budget and analyze your spending. You should be budgeting how much you want to save or invest each month, gifts, entertainment, etc. Begin doing this right away, but be aware that your budgeting will need some adjusting until you’ve been tracking your spending for at least 6 months.

This might sound like a no-brainer, but it’s apparently harder than it sounds! Here’s some stats from May 2016. The average American household debt is $5,700. However, the average balance carrying household debt is $16,048. That means there are those of us with no credit card debt (yea!), but those with credit card debt have over $16,000 on average. That’s a lot of debt and hard to pay down. There’s also a psychology to debt that once you have started accumulating debt it’s easier to add to it. So it’s best to never let yourself go down that road. Only buy things you can afford! Other than a house and possibly (under the right circumstances) education, you shouldn’t go into debt at all. Take a look at this chart below, I find it fascinating.

Those who have negative or zero net worth have the most debt and that is as I’d predict. But then, the amount of debt increases even though the net worth increases. This means you can’t tell yourself, if I only made $10,000 more a year we’d be out of debt, or if I had more assets and was able to invest I’d get out of debt. That isn’t the case. Those with $500,000 in net worth actually have more debt than those with only $5,000 in net worth. Only buy what you can afford and avoid debt all together!

Even if you’re diligent at following your budget there will always be expenses that don’t normally occur and you didn’t plan for.  Car repairs, dishwasher breaking, basement floods, child breaks your neighbor’s window, etc. You need to have a reserve fund so you can pay for unexpected expenses without going into debt. Your reserve fund should be deep enough that if you were to lose your job you could cover your basic expenses for at least 4 months while you find a new job. You should put off buying a new car, going on vacation, going out to eat, and other nonnecessities until this reserve fund is built up. Doing this will allow you the freedom and peace of mind to travel or eat out later when you know you can afford it.

Investing is separate from your emergency fund. Your emergency fund should be liquid and available easily, without penalty, when needed. Investing and preparing for retirement should be done in multiple ways. Don’t put all your savings eggs in one basket. I suggest exploring multiple routes for retirement: 401k, stocks, property, gold, IRAs, life insurance, etc. The sooner you begin investing the better. If you can get your money in a good financial vehicle that compounds regularly then time is the biggest factor in your retirement savings.

This is out of many people’s comfort zone, but don’t let that stop you. There are many things you can negotiate. Let’s start with the biggest – your salary. If you are a hard worker and valuable employee then you should be bringing more value to the company than you are taking in terms of the company’s bottom line. Point out your worth to your boss, have a salary in mind, and be prepared. Many bosses are willing to give raises or promotions when it’s deserved but they don’t go out of their way and take time out of their schedules to get the paperwork going. If your boss isn’t able to increase your salary at this time, try for another perk like a company cell phone, gas stipend, or more vacation days. It’s your responsibility to make this happen. Besides salaries there are many other things you should negotiate: price of your cable or internet,  used or new cars, house price, mortgage rate, rent, medical bills, credit card costs or rates, furniture (especially appliances or other large purchases), garage sale or used items, gym memberships, hotel rates, vacation packages, and even small items like a free drink or discount on your pizza. It’s simple to ask if there’s any deals they can offer or any way they can help you out. Most people enjoy giving someone a good deal if they can, no harm in asking.

Your credit score can greatly influence your ability to get a home loan, rate of your loan, credit card rates, auto loan rates, property rentals, insurance coverage, and cell phone or utility deposits. If your credit score is low, take steps to improve it. Pay off credit cards and medical bills, pay utilities on time, negotiate with the companies you owe, under-use your credit cards and raise the limits on them (but don’t spend to the limit when you do this!). Even if your credit score is excellent, regularly check it to make sure nothing illegal or damaging is happening. You can request a free copy of your credit report once a year from AnnualCreditReport.com.  Be sure to check each of three major credit reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

When I was pregnant with our first child my husband was still in school and I was working as a high school math teacher. We were very frugal and even though we didn’t make much money we didn’t spend much either. One of the first baby purchases we made was to buy a stroller car seat combo. There are some that cost over $600 and some that cost $120. We went to every baby store, searched online, and asked for opinions. It took us almost three months to buy a stroller combo that cost about $150. To us, $150 was a lot of money at that time and we wanted to get something that was good quality and inexpensive. We used that stroller for all three kids and were very happy with it, but it took us three months to find one we thought was a good deal! I won’t tell you how long it took us to buy a car. (-:

It is easier than ever to compare prices and do basic research before buying something. Don’t let “sales” pressure you into spontaneous buys. I live close by some outlet malls and there’s always a sale. You don’t need to “buy now” because you’ll miss out on a great deal, there’s almost always a great deal somewhere. I recommend a few easy price checking apps: get on Amazon and do a quick search of what you’re buying at a store to see if it’s cheaper online, use thecouponsapp for any retail or restaurants to see if there’s a coupon available (I used it last weekend school clothes shopping and there were coupons for two of the three stores we went to!), and set a rule for yourself that you’ll do your research before buying anything over x amount (say $100 or $50 or whatever amount you need to slow down and make yourself a smart shopper).

If you have a business idea that’s been in the back of your mind for some time, dust it off and give it a try. You don’t need to quit your day job, neglect your children, or go into debt to start a business. Writing a book, starting an online store, creating a blog, selling photography, etc. can all be done with very little upfront costs. I began making money with my blog during my third month all while being a stay at home mom with a busy schedule! Sign up with Blue Host to start your website for under $4/month and that includes your domain. Don’t let fear, time, or self-doubt stop you from achieving your dream. Multiple sources of income will allow you to reach a financial peak that an 8-5 job doesn’t offer. If you need more money to pay off debt, travel, retire, build up an emergency fund, then creating a new source of revenue is the best way to do it.

I realize I just gave you nine ways to save money or make money and now I’m recommending giving it away! I do believe that donating to charity will make you richer. It is a habit we should all be doing regularly. I believe it will improve your financial situation in two ways. First, you will come to appreciate your money more which will lead you to be wiser with it. If you’ve worked for hours on a business idea, only made a few bucks with surveys, or sales haven’t been what you hoped they’d be, and then you donate $100 to someone who has suffered a tragedy, can’t provide for their kids, or is just barely making ends meet then you’ll think twice about expensive shoes, eating out, getting pedicures, etc. I believe being charitable will actually save you money. The second reason I recommend it is because life isn’t just about money. Even though I write about finance and work hard to make money, there are definitely more important things. Donating money keeps my perspective where it needs to be which makes me happier and more productive. There are lots of amazing places to donate to: Ronald McDonald House (which just benefited my nephew during his cancer treatments),  Heifer International, or many others including your local church or charity centers.

If you get into the habit of doing these 10 things you will be able to take control of your finances, build more wealth, and stay out of debt. This list is true for any age and income level. Become deliberate about where your money is going, respect it, and use it wisely.

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