My top 10 survey websites & ways to make money from home

I thought I would make a big list of my favorite survey and other websites where I have made money from home. *work in progress

This is a list of the ways I have made money online in the past 3 years. I know that they are not scams because they have actually paid me:

1. ChaCha Earn money finding the answers to customers questions at home from your computer. No set hours, just log in when you want to answer questions. I have earned the most money answering questions for ChaCha, probably about $3000 in the last 3 years.
2. Toluna Earn points for taking surveys, testing products and voting on polls. Trade in points for cash or other rewards. 60,000 points gets you $20. They have actually paid me $20 & another $20 is on it's way in the mail. I also have 28,000 points. I think it will be easy to make $20 every month with Toluna.
3. SurveySavvy Earn money for taking surveys and testing products. This is one survey panel that I joined 3 years ago. I was paid $1 back then. You can refer friends and get matching rewards.

This list is the survey panels or other things that I am currently trying but have not actually gotten paid from yet:

1. Mindfield Online I've heard that they send out a lot of products to test and high paying surveys. You can cashout when you have $5. I have $7 pending approval with them. They pay with either a check or Paypal.
2. Instant Cash Sweepstakes Take easy 3 question surveys and win cash, sweepstakes tickets, and coins that can buy more tickets in the sweepstakes. Earn matching prizes from referrals. They will pay you via Paypal once you have $2. I have $1.53 so far.
3. Cash Crate Make money by completing offers and taking surveys. They give you $1 just for joining & you can cash out at $20. Some of my offers are pending, once they are credited I will have $20 and will get paid.
4. Swag Bucks Earn Swag Bucks for searching the web, taking surveys, shopping in their Shop & Earn Mall, voting in polls, sending in prize photos & videos, watching videos, inviting friends to join, completing special offers, finding swag codes, & trading in cell phones & video games. You get 30 Swag Bucks just for joining!
5. Surveyhead  Earn money for taking surveys. You get a $5 bonus for signing up & you can cash out when you have $10. I will soon get paid because I have $10 pending.

Last updated on 11/27/2010 at 1:22am

Survey Savvy

Dear friend,

I have enjoyed being a member of the SurveySavvy.com community and thought you might find it fun as well.

As a member, you can make a difference by participating in online surveys, focus groups, as well as other interactive studies.

SurveySavvy is unique from other online panels because of its patented referral program that gives you incentives for every survey your referrals complete and additional incentives for every survey their referrals complete. This represents growth to your account balance regardless of whether or not you actually complete any surveys!

To sign up, click on the following link: https://www.surveysavvy.com/ss/ss_index.php?id=3696282&d=c&action=join&lid=en-us

If that doesn't work, copy and paste the link into your browser.

Take Care,
 Jennifer

MindField Online

You've probably noticed that I've been trying out a lot of survey panels. One of them is MindField. I have heard that they send out a lot of products to test & high paying surveys but I have not received any yet. I will be updating on all of my survey panels & letting you know if they actually ever pay me. Want to try out MindField with me? Go to http://mindfieldonline.com/referral/462c3acb

Thanks for the free tacos Jack in the Box!

Jack in the Box had free tacos yesterday. They were giving 2 free tacos to anyone who came in after 2 pm. I took the kids in and we got 8 free tacos (we got 2 for the baby even though she can't eat tacos yet!) We didn't even need a coupon and there was no charge for tax or the 4 waters we also ordered. The tacos were pretty good but the kids did not like the hot sauce on them. We heard about it by watching a funny Jack in the Box commercial on Youtube. You can see it here.

Print Coupons with Swag Bucks!

Mandi has talked me into joining Swag Bucks. I was going to wait until they gave out a code for new users that would give me extra points, but I didn't want to wait anymore. I was losing out on all the Swag Codes they were giving out just to earn maybe an extra 20 Swag Bucks. So far I think it is great. I search the internet a lot anyway so why not earn Swag Bucks at the same time.

You can earn Swag Bucks for searching the web, taking surveys, shopping in their Shop & Earn Mall, voting in polls, sending in prize photos & videos, watching videos, inviting friends to join, completing special offers, finding swag codes, trading in cell phones and video games.

They have a lot of great prizes that you can trade in your swag bucks for. I am going to try to get an Amazon.com gift card.

There is also one REALLY cool thing about Swag Bucks: I can print coupons from Swag Bucks and each time I use one in the grocery store I earn 10 Swag Bucks. I was already printing and using them anyway! So it's awesome that I will be getting even more out of my coupons.

If you want to try Swag Bucks too & earn 30 Swag Bucks just for joining go here: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/surveymama2010

Pay Day!

Yay! I got a check yesterday from Toluna. I also have 55,000 points in my account so as soon as I get 5000 more points I can request another check. I love Toluna! I really like how they always have surveys available for me to take. They are my definitely my favorite survey panel so far.

Toluna is the only one I can recommend right now and say you will definitely get paid, because they are the only ones who have ever paid me (yet). I will let you know when/if any of the other survey panels that I am trying out ever pay me. 

I didn't realize until today that I could earn 500 points by recommending Toluna to my friends. If you want to help me earn 17 cents let me know & I will send you an email invite!

Walgreens is a customer focused retailer? Yeah right!

To whom it may concern,
    I had a very negative experience yesterday at your Walgreens located at _______. I was in your store around 8:00 pm with my 3 children. This was my first time ever going inside that store. While shopping for other items, I noticed that they had Purina One dog & cat food for sale for $.99. I happened to have on me 4 coupons for $2.00 off any one Purina. When I checked out the coupons made the register beep & would not take all 4 coupons. I told her that at the other Walgreens I had been to adjust down the price of the coupon, if it is more than the price of the item, to match the price. She must have been a little new because she had to get her manager and this is where things went ugly.
    The manager’s name was ________, he was an older man with gray hair. When he checked the transaction he said that they would not take the coupons for those items because the coupons were for more than the price of the Purina. He was very rude to me. I told him that when I have been to other Walgreens stores & they adjust down the price of the coupon to match the price of the item he said that “they shouldn’t be doing that because it is wrong” and that he would definitely not adjust the coupons down because it would be coupon fraud. I asked him if he would call the person over him to check this he said “well he’s at home.” I asked him to please call him and he responded with “With the day he’s had, I don’t think so!”  He was very belligerent, saying that he would not call him at home & would not check with anyone to see what the coupon policy was and he was definitely not going to take the coupons for the Purina.
    The cashier asked me if I wanted to go ahead and pay for everything & I said no, that I “needed to go shopping in their store some more and think about what I was going to buy.“ The manager than angrily punched the keys into the register to void the transaction & signed a receipt very angrily, glared at me and then walked off with a huff.
    I could tell the cashier thought her manager was being very rude. She was very nice to me throughout the whole thing. I took my cart & put back almost all of the items that I was going to buy & then went to check out with the same cashier again. She said that she talked to one of the other cashiers who said that she heard she was supposed to mark the price of the coupon but since the manager said no she could not do it.
    I have now read your coupon policy on your website and it clearly says that “The coupon amount must be reduced if it exceeds the value of the item after other discounts or coupons are applied. (For example, a $5.00 coupon for a $4.99 item will result in a $4.99 coupon value).”
    I hope you will train that manager on your official policy. That Walgreens is 15 miles away from my house. I am not going to go out of my way, wasting my time and gas to shop there if I can’t use my coupons & I am going to be treated like a criminal.

Update: 

About 45 minutes after I sent this letter to Walgreens I got a phone call from the manager of the store I went to last night. I wasn't expecting them to call me right away. I can't remember all that he said but basically he apologized a lot for the way I was treated & said that they would be having a coupon policy training meeting with not only the rude assistant manager but also all of the employees who work in the store. He said that the coupon policy is new and said the assistant manager should have either adjusted the coupon to the price of the product or raised the price of the product to the amount on the coupon. He hoped I would give them a second chance.

I don't know about that though. I don't want to have another run in with _____. I guess I should have asked him exactly when they will be having their coupon training meeting so I don't go in before then. There's not much chance of that happening any time soon though. I'm perfectly happy with my relationship with the Walgreens down the road. Usually I mess up & have to apologize to the cashier for not knowing what I am doing. That's the way it should be!

You will be happy to know I have now printed a Walgreens coupon policy to carry in my binder just like the Krazy Coupon Lady recommended. I don't think the assistant manager would have looked at it even if I would had it though.

The funny thing is, I don't even have a dog or a cat! I didn't need the Purina. But it was free and I was thinking about how fun it would be for to drop it off to someone who needs it. 

Here is me making myself accountable.

I've been thinking about my Mastercard & how I transferred the balance to Discover for the 0% interest rate. What is going to keep me from using the Mastercard to pay for all the bills & maxing it out again? I know I won't use the Discover card, I hid it from myself.
I need to hide the Mastercard from myself. The thing that stops me is that their reward points are so tempting! Mastercard is now doing a cashback reward so I could pay the credit card with the cash back. I keep thinking that if I pay all the bills with the credit card every month & make a payment to my credit card for that amount with cash then I would be making money right? Hmmm.. I guess I need to just forget about that and only use cash till I get everything back under control.
Tomorrow I will hide it from me. Funny (I know) because I'll still know where it is, but if it is not in my purse I'll be less likely to use it.

Survey Update

There are 13 survey websites that I now belong to and one get get paid to try website. I've been getting lots of surveys in my email today.

With Instant Cash Sweepstakes, I am now at 66 cents. Only 1.34 more till I can cash out. I haven't been doing so good at remembering to take their surveys every 3 hours, I could have been maybe at $1 by now. Their surveys are really easy, multiple choice questions. They have a $2 sweepstakes every 4 hours & every night they have a drawing for $50. Each time you take a survey you get tickets for the drawing, coins you can use to buy more tickets, & sometimes money. I'm not sure this is something I was to keep up with in the long run, for now I just want to see if they do actually pay you.

I am still at about $10 with Cash Crate. When I was thinking that I would have $20 by now I forgot to take in to account the fact that not all of the offers credit your account right away. I am waiting for 10 offers to credit & one of them should be at least $5.

Surveyhead is one of the panels that I joined recently. I really like that they pay you for answering their profile surveys. You get a $5 bonus for signing up & you can cash out when you have $10. Today I made it to $10 but I can't cash out yet because some of my surveys are still pending. They are a company that I keep hearing good things about.

I really like Toluna because they always have surveys available & I feel like I can trust them because I was a panel member back when they were Your2cents & they paid me back then. Plus I have a check from Toluna on the way for $20! I am already up to 30,000 points again, once I reach 60,000 I will get another $20. Toluna has quick polls you can answer to earn a small amount of points. They are only 15-75 points but they can add up quickly if you take all of their sponsored polls everyday (this is what I do). The little polls can lead to a longer survey if your answers are what they are looking for. The only negative thing I have to say about Toluna so far is that I have done 3 surveys this week where I answer all of the questions in the whole survey & when I get to the submit survey end it takes me to an error page & I didn't get credited for them. That was frustrating!

Update: Toluna has paid me! See a picture of my check here.

Cash Crate is pouring money into my pockets! (maybe)

I am in gratitude to the certain person (who will remain anonymous) who recommended that I should join Cash Crate in the hopes of paying off my credit card debt. I think it may be my new favorite way to try to make money from home. At first I was a little skeptical because I am used to the survey panel websites & that's what I thought Cash Crate was supposed to be.

When I logged in to Cash Crate I was tempted with pages of offers that I could earn money for. I clicked on an offer & it wanted to know my full name, my home address and my phone number & the names & birth dates of everyone in my household, my credit card number, and (of course) the names of my long lost dead turtles (kidding). Right away I had a bad feeling and, being the slightly paranoid internet user that I am, I did not complete that offer & I am sad to say that I will not be a $100,000 winner. Instead I did the survey that you can do every 24 hours & logged out. I made the resolution to only do 1 survey a day with Cash Crate & focus on my other survey websites.

Well, I had a little time on my hands (no survey invitations) so I went to a few blogs to try to find out if people really click on those Cash Crate offers to make money. Someone made a comment that to make a bunch of money really fast, all you had to do was just click on an offer & then it would take you to another screen, close that screen & then hit submit. So without thinking I tried that, then realized that would be like stealing from them because I did not complete the offer. I looked to see what it was that I had already submitted & thank goodness, it was only an offer to join a survey panel. Luckily it didn't want my home address & when I checked, it was a legitimate survey panel. I had been joining survey panels all day anyway so what was one more.

Later I learned that Cash Crate will not pay you if you don't complete the offer anyway so it would have been okay to not complete the offer. Whoever it was that recommended making a fast $50 by trying to trick the system was crazy. Thinking on it now, that person actually helped me out because I probably wouldn't have tried to do any more offers. I would have assumed that they all require a home address, but instead I learned that some of the offers only want your email address.

So I got a new email address to use for all my Cash Crate offers & went right to work. I completed offers to subscribe to email newsletters & offers to enter into drawings for amazing prizes, & lots more. Something tells me that I will be getting a lot of junk email, but I don't care since it's not going to my email that I use all the time.

Somewhere between thinking Cash Crate was a scam & completing all those offers, I learned that Cash Crate is located here in Idaho. In a town called Ammon, ID, to be specific. There is something reassuring about them being here in Idaho. That was also when I realized that I could have made $40 for getting my Discover card if I would have waited 2 days and taken Cash Crate's offer.

Right now I am almost to 10 dollars & I've found an offer to write reviews of products & by tomorrow night I will hopefully be at $20.  I'll be able to cash out & tell you for sure that, yes Cash Crate does pay you. I'll post a picture of my check when I get it.

I'm happy to help you, or give you tips if you want to start making easy money & getting a lot of junk email like I am. To sign up, just go to: http://www.cashcrate.com/2365998

Let's get out of debt!

Making money!

I really want to be able to get my credit card paid off so I spent yesterday & the day before signing up for a lot of online survey sites and one "get paid to try" website. The next thing I had to do was answer a bazillion profile questions. In my future posts I'll tell you about them & then update you on whether or not I make any money.

Instant Cash Sweepstakes should not take me very long to make the minimum payout ($2) especially since it seems that usually I am getting at least a penny with each survey session. My plan is to keep taking those easy surveys every 3 hours or as often as I remember until I have earned $2 and can see if they really are a paying company. If you want to help me with this goal, sign up at http://instantcashsweepstakes.com/invitations/ref_link/5903 & join me in my survey marathon. I am at 20 cents now, only $1.80 to go.

Cash Crate is the get paid to try website that I joined. They have a whole bunch of offers that you can get paid for trying and surveys that you can take. I wish I would have waited to get my Discover card, I could have made $40 for signing up through Cash Crate! If I take an 80 cent survey every day, I can make $24 in one month. I bet you can guess what my plan is there! Yep, I'm going to take one every day until I get enough to cash out. With Cash Crate you can cash out at $20. I've found a lot of people online who say that they have gotten paid from Cash Crate & show their checks as proof. I'll post a picture of mine when (if) I ever get one. I can't wait to get my credit card paid off. If you were to sign up with my link & take those 80 cent surveys too, you could help me get out of debt & also be making some easy money yourself! Here is my link: http://www.cashcrate.com/2365998

Thanks for doing the ChaCha!

Sure you've heard of the Cha Cha dance, but have you ever done the ChaCha text? Want to know the capital of Peru? Need the answer to a difficult math equation? Dying to know the name of the person you are going marry? Need a weather forecast? Wondering about the average length of the... (Haha, put that just for you Hannah!) ChaCha has answers for you!

You text your question to 242-242 & ChaCha will send you the answer for FREE.

I've been a ChaCha guide for a few years now & it's a pretty fun way to make money from home. I haven't had a lot of extra time now that I have 3 kids but every now & then I will answer a few questions. ChaCha has different types of guides & they earn different amounts for each completed task. Guides answer questions using their computers.

You must be 18+ years old, fluent in English, and have a U.S. mailing address & high speed internet connection. To find out more about being a ChaCha guide or to apply, go to: http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/faqs/

I will be getting paid from Toluna!

It hasn't been that long that I have been taking surveys again with Toluna (only 11 days). Today I reached 66,000 points & requested a payment. You can request a cash payment once you reach 60,000 points. Toluna pays in increments of $20 so the rest of my points stay in my account until I reach another 60,000 points.

When I made my request they estimated that it would take 4 weeks for the check to get to me. I'll keep you updated on if they actually do pay me. I'm excited to have made $20 already!

Go to http://us.toluna.com if you want to make money with Toluna too.

Surveyhead

Today I signed up to take surveys with Surveyhead. They credited me $5 just for signing up & I will earn more money just for taking profile surveys. I will be able to cash out once I get to $10.

This one seems to have better reviews than the others Survey panels I am trying. Apparently they will pay more for their surveys & will pay with Paypal. I like that they credit me with dollars and not points. Another reason that I have a good feeling about them is because I just noticed that they are accredited by the Better Business Bureau.

I'll let you know how this one goes & if I make any money.
Go to http://www.surveyhead.com if you want to try Surveyhead too.

Only 2 more days to order boneless skinless chicken for 1.48/pound

There are only 2 days left to order Zaycon Food's cases of "high quality, healthy" boneless skinless chicken in time for their Fall Chicken Event. Today I ordered a case & if it's as good as it looks, I'll get more in the spring and I will definitely talk my friends & family into getting it.

There is not a lot of information available on Zaycon Foods on the internet right now. There are a few blogs offering giveaways for the chicken and of course Zaycon's website. The one thing that is comforting is that nothing comes up saying that it is a scam.

The 40 pound case cost 62.75 including tax. We're looking forward to getting 40 pounds of fresh, never frozen chicken (or finding out that it is a scam & fighting the charge on my credit card). I know- I wasn't going to charge anything else, but it seemed safer than sending a check & letting them know my bank account number.

Discover Credit Card

Guess who is the new proud owner of a Discover credit card? You're right! Me! I'm loving it already. I am transferring my balance from my Mastercard & they are giving me 0% interest rate on it until November of 2011.

This is all thanks to my new couponing lifestyle! In this weeks coupons there was a offer for a Discover card. I didn't quite get the best offer they had, but since I am just trying to pay off my debt I don't care if they didn't give me the introductory 9 month 0% on all new purchases (They gave me 20.99%). I don't want to make new purchases.

If you go to www.apply.Discovercard.com you can try to get their special offer which includes:

$100 cashback bonus when you make $999 in purchases
0% Intro purchase APR for Nine months
0% Intro balnace tranfer APR until November 2011

Here is the invitation code that was on the coupon: DAL3

After that length of time you will have a variable purchase APR of 10.99%-18.99% (or higher like me).

I feel like a little weight has been lifted off my shoulders. My Mastercard has a horrible interest rate, somewhere around 23.99%. They recently raised it on me, 0% interest is a little bit of heaven. Now I just have to be smart & get it all paid off.

Synovate Global Opinion Panels

This month I became a member of Synovate Global Opinion Panels. I logged on & did 4 interest surveys. I have 1500 points & if I ever get to 5000 points I will get $5. Not sure if that will ever happen though- so far they have not sent me any surveys. I just keep getting this message: "Currently, you do not have any surveys available."

My friend Hannah told me that she has been a member for a long time & all she ever got out of it was a water bottle. If I ever make any money out of it I will let you know!

Go to http://www.globalopinionpanels.com/ to join.

Toluna Surveys

Do you like taking surveys? I've been a Toluna member for a while now. They used to be called Your 2 Cents but where bought by Toluna in 2009. When they were Your 2 Cents I made 10 dollars & yes they did actually pay me.

It had been about a year since I've taken surveys with Toluna. This week, I started taking surveys again. After I had my baby in November I sort of dropped off the radar, stopped taking surveys, working, or even looking at Facebook. I logged in to Toluna & had 3,000 points from last year. You need to get 60,000 points to get paid $20. After spending lots of time taking surveys, I am now at 34,000 points & have 8 completed surveys waiting to be credited their points.

You don't make a ton of money doing surveys, but it is a great & easy way to make a little extra cash.

I've noticed that there are a lot of people who think Toluna is a scam. They say they spend a ton of time taking surveys only to be kicked out at the last minute & not get credited points. I have not had that experience. When they were Your 2 Cents they were great, soon I will be able to tell you for sure whether or not Toluna really pays.

To register at Toluna go to: http://us.toluna.com/Register.aspx

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts for $1.48

Last year I learned how to can chicken in my pressure cooker. I canned 37 pints of chicken & it's now all gone. It was really good, extremely easy to can, very tender & handy to use in lot's of recipes. I've watching for a really good deal on boneless skinless chicken breasts so I can can it again & have found a deal that sounds great.

I learned from pinchingyourpennies.com that Zaycon Foods is having a Fall chicken event & will be delivering boneless skinless chicken breasts to Washington, Idaho, & Oregon. It's only $1.48/ pound. They sell it by the case & a 40 pound case only costs $59.20. I registered with their website at  http://www.zayconfoods.com/ & will probably get 1 or 2 cases. A few of my relatives have already placed orders. They need to have the orders by October 22nd.

The thing that has kept me from ordering so far is the fact that they are not listed on whitepages.com. & a reverse phone search does not bring results. When I do a better business bureau search they are not there, which gives me doubts. I have been wondering if this is a scam. They say they are a private company founded in 2009.

I hope it's not! I will probably risk it & at least order 1 case. Do you think this is a bad idea? Talk me out of it or if you have personal experience with Zaycon Foods please tell about it!

Choose your own adventure!

You now have the exciting opportunity to help decide what I should write about next. Here are your options:


Canning potatoes
Canning spaghetti sauce
My favorite stroller
One of the ways I make money from home
Cheap chicken
Reader's choice (you tell me what to write)

Let me know, you decide!

Horrible Diapers

Dear Winco,
I am breaking up with you. I hate your store brand diapers! I've had to resort to stapling to keep them on my 2 year old son. If I were made of money I would just stop using them & give the rest of them to someone poorer than me. I'm done buying your diapers.
P.S. It's not you, it's me. I still want to be friends & we can still hang out. I still like your bulk spices & pasta.


Yes, I should have known that store brand diapers are not high quality, but it was tempting because they were so cheap ($12.50 for 96 size 3 diapers or 70 size 5 diapers). With 2.5 kids in diapers, (oldest wears them at night) I have to be really cheap.

Cuddle-Ups (Winco) are a little better & cheaper than the Sam's Club brand, Members Mark. When I used the Members Mark the sticky tabs fell right off & I ended up stapling them on too. At least Winco's will stay on for a little while.

Wal-Mart's Parent's Choice are also cheap but don't hold much urine so I had to buy more of them.

Luvs are my all time favorite diapers & I get them when I have a coupon. 

There are always coupons for Huggies, but I don't think I want them. I used them with my first baby & they leaked if I didn't make sure the leak guard were not sticking to the edge of the diaper around the legs.

So what should I do? Anyone know where to get cheap diapers? I would love to use Luvs again.

I miss you Luvs diapers! Where are all your coupons when I need them?

Thinking about becoming a member of Instant Cash Sweepstakes?

My friend got me to sign up at instantcashsweepstakes.com with her because we both are stay at home moms & want to try making extra money. Is it a scam? You tell me Hannah!

When we first joined you answered a simple 3 question survey & then could win instant cash or tickets for the a drawing for $250. You could only answer I think 6 surveys & then you had to wait a certain amount of hours before you could do more surveys.

I made 42 cents the first day. You can get a "matching prize" from everyone who signs up under you & supposedly make tons of money. I signed up my husband & made 12 cents off of him & also 25 cents from some person named Jeff who used my referral link.

In the last year I've made a total of 87 CENTS. But... you cannot get the money until you have made 5 dollars. It seemed like I was never going to get to that amount so I didn't log in for a long time.

Today I found out that if you don't log in for 30 days then they will take the money that you have won away! I think this is a new rule because they barely  took away the money 2 days ago and I haven't logged in for at least 6 months. So all that time I spent doing all the stupid 3 question surveys was for nothing.
Wow, that was a huge waste of time! Woo hoo!!! Thanks InstantCashSweepstakes.com!
If you are thinking about signing up, make sure you log in every 30 days. The questions are multiple choice & easy. I never actually got any money from them so I can't say whether or not it is legit.

If you would like to try it anyway, here is the link to sign up:
http://instantcashsweepstakes.com/invitations/ref_link/5903

Okay Hannah- you peer pressured me into it (You know who you are. Yes you!).

Apparently everyone has a blog & I am missing out because I am not able to put my innermost thoughts on the internet for everyone and their dogs & cats to read. So here you go: my innermost thoughts. Enjoy!