There's Not Enough Time!

My days are getting filled faster than I can believe. There's barely enough time for me to sit down to talk to my husband, much less do online surveys for cash. This $3000/month goal might be a LOT harder to come by than I thought. If I do manage, then I'll be sure to share it with you, because at the moment, I think I could squeeze in a 7-hour work week. At $3000 per month for a total of 28 hours of work, I think ANYONE would want in on the secret :).

So I'll keep trying to post, but at the moment, I'm barely floating above the daily routine of feeding, cleaning, changing, etc. the two little people in my life! I also want to enjoy every moment of it, and maybe this blog will turn into something entirely different; maybe it'll eventually be re-named, "A Stay-at-Home Mom's Journey to Enjoying Her Kids (while trying to Earn a Living)"!! Haha...

At the moment, I'm trying to create a routine or schedule for our days at home. Turns out it's difficult to find an easy-to-use/ready-to-use routine. So I'll write about mine as soon as I make one.

I have no regrets at all about not earning any cash at the moment. For example, my day today with Little Dude (2-year-old) and Muppet (7-month-old) went like this:

9am- Feed Muppet milk

9:30am - Little Dude wakes up (a real rarity - usually he's awake by 6:30am!), breakfast for both kids (oatmeal, fruit, milk for Little Dude; peas & oatmeal for the Muppet)

10am - Muppet naps; Little Dude & I draw with chalk on the sidewalk, then we move to the backyard patio

11am - Muppet wakes up - I put her in an exersaucer that we JUST borrowed from a friend on the patio; Dude & I & his grandpa garden - we took out the moss from the patio cracks, pick up all the fallen apples, pull out some weeds, stake my zucchini & pea plants - AND I managed to have a cup of coffee too!

Noon - Muppet goes back down for a nap (she's been having problems lately); Little Dude goes for a swim in our little inflatable pool.

1pm - Lunch - Little Dude & I have a nice date - lunching on quinoa salad, kale chips, homemade Bao Zi from our neighbour, and slices of cheese.

2pm - Little Dude naps, and Muppet wakes up - I play with her for a bit, and then she is content to sit in her exersaucer (thank goodness it's portable!). I work on my freelance writing projects. Eventually she goes down for a nap!

5pm - Little Dude wakes up as cheerful as a bug. But so does Muppet. They played together - they're doing so well together!! They managed to entertain each other while I figured out what I need to make for lunch for  Mommy Group tomorrow.

5:30pm - Daddy comes home, Little Dude & I run to the grocery store.

6:30pm - Supper time

7:30pm - Baths for both kiddies by Daddy (thank goodness); I make fruit salsa for Mommy Group, with Little Dude helping me after his bath (he actually cut raspberries with his little kid knife!).

8:30pm - Both babies in bed, and I can finally blog/try to make a daily routine schedule (which is now on hiatus because I'm blogging...) :)

It's now 10pm and I'm wiped out. Time for bed. We'll try for a routine again tomorrow. Oh wait, there's mommy group. By the time that's done, it'll be naps for EVERYONE. Going out is exhausting, but totally worth the fun! If I'm blogging again tomorrow, well, that probably means I'm putting off the schedule once again.

It's Hard to Blog

Wow. It's been a while since I've blogged. I don't think blogging is going to be a way for me to earn the big bucks. I'm just not disciplined enough, nor am I really courageous enough to share my blog with too many people! I'm also getting so busy taking care of the kids and just running around doing things - my day just gets filled up. And here I am again, 10:40pm - I still have a ton of stuff to do around the house, and the goal was to be in bed by 11pm. I guess I should add a decent bedtime to my list of rules for how to earn money from home. 11pm sounds good.

Anyway, there are many who doubt that $3000 can be earned from home, and in my attempts to scour the Internet for amazing ways to earn this much money, I've come across many blogs describing others' attempts at doing something similar. Unfortunately, many of these blogs talk about deals only available in the USA, such as through http://www.beezag.com/. I make no claims as to how legit that site is - I can't do it since I'm in Canada, so I didn't even bother reading much about it. Sounds like an easy way to make a few bucks though.

I'm actually so busy that I can't keep up with all the survey requests I'm getting in my inbox. Currently, I have about 10 invitations outstanding, and at an average of 20 minutes per survey, I feel overwhelmed. Plus, it's quite disheartening to get the survey, spend 5 minutes, only to be told the quota was filled up or I'm not eligible. Sigh... This is getting harder, but I'll keep trying. Right now though, sleep is way more important!!

Good night!

Five bucks!

Yes, I've officially made five bucks. Sort of. I haven't actually claimed it yet. One of my dilemmas is when I should cash out my points to trade in for money. I haven't had much time to analyze the points systems yet (unlike when I worked for some place where I had absolutely no work to do, and had hours upon hours to make Excel charts on point systems).

So how did I make five bucks yesterday? Swagbucks.com

Yes, I said I wasn't going to use swagbucks. I'm still undecided on how much I should invest in it. Many are huge fans. Just google it, and tons of people rave about it. I'm wondering how they make their money, and I'm guessing a huge chunk of it is based on collecting information about me.

Anyway, I made five bucks yesterday by signing on for a free trial, doing these swagbucks "tasks" (which took WAY too much of my time), and searching the internet through swagbucks. So I'm now at a total of 902 (8 SB (swagbucks) were from today).

How does that pan out in terms of actual cash? The only way to get actual cash is to claim it through paypal. (There are other ways, such as gift cards, but that's not part of my game plan.)

Here's the breakdown:
$5 = 700 SB (140SB/$1)
$10 = 1335 SB (133.5SB/$1)
$25 = 3215 SB (128.6SB/$1)
$50 = 6330 SB (126.6SB/$1)
$100 = 12,549 SB (125.5SB/$1)

Overall Verdict of Swagbucks:
Fairly Attainable Goal to redeem $5-$10
Redeemable through Paypal


In terms of the benefits of waiting for more swagbucks to claim cash, it doesn't seem like it would be worth it to wait too long. The difference in SB:$ ratio is too small, in my opinion. It would seem like a better idea to cash out early and add it to my investments.

Anyway, I won't think too hard about it. I'll probably cash out at $25, if I get there. It seems like way too much effort and time for too little reward. I might need a new plan :).

TODAY'S TOTALS:
Cash (in my hand, not potential): $0

Points, in order of potential of getting actual cash:
Swagbucks: 902
NetPanel: 82
ipsos i-say: 100
OpinionWorld: 50
Global Test Market: 30
Toluna: 500

Survey Says...

Today, I spent a while doing several surveys - one through swagbucks, several through Opinion World, one through Ipsos, and one through NetPanel.

I'd have to say the best survey was through Ipsos. They have a new format, which makes answering questions less tedious. They also had an interesting topic, which also played into the "better" factor.

So far, though, I think NetPanel may have the easiest CASH payout of them all. I've done two surveys, and now have 82 points. In order to get any cash, I have to get to 400 points. It doesn't seem as far out of reach as some of the others. On top of that, the two surveys they have sent me have both given me points. Even if I get screened out, I still got 5 points. This is unlike many of the other companies, which just give you a free draw into some big cash prize. I'm wondering if anyone ever wins those prizes!

Overall Verdict of Net Panel:
Easily Attainable Goal of 400 points to redeem $10 - and they mail you a cheque! (The other levels seem doable too: 750 points = $25, 1000 points = $50)

Today's Totals:
Cash: $0
Swagbucks: 49
NetPanel: 82
ipsos i-say: 90

Yay! There may be some cash!

I got a call to be a part of a focus group today! I might actually make some money. It's supposed to pay between $60-80 for 1-2 hours of work. Minus the transportation costs, I might make about $50-70. I'm definitely not getting rich this way. By the time it takes place, I'll have been searching for a "job" for over two weeks.

I've also joined several survey sites. To recap, these are the ones I'm now a part of:

1. Opinion World
2. Mindfield
3. Mysurvey.ca
4. Lightspeed Panel
5. NetPanel
6. Toluna
7. Ipsos i-Say
8. NPDOR
9. Global Test Market

Other, non-survey "jobs":

1. Focus Paid Opinions (for focus groups)
2. justanswers.com (still waiting for approval)
3. tutor.com (waiting for openings)
4. about.com (waiting for approval)

In my next posts, I'll write brief reviews about the survey sites.

Start of Week 2 - The Rules of Engagement

So far, my career as a "Random-Stay-At-Home-Moneymaker" has not gotten off the ground. I guess it's like with any other job - send out a 100 applications to finally get one interview. I've found this awesome website today that lists all the Canadian Survey Companies out there. It has an excellent summary of them, including how much you can earn and what you have to do.

I did hear back from a Focus Group. It was sent to my email, and I'm waiting to hear back from them. The nice thing with my own rules for this "job" is that I get to change them when I want. So here they are so far:

1) The job must not require any upfront/major expenses (other than transportation).
2) The job should be done from HOME, or if it's outside of the home, it can only take up to 4 hours (including travel).
3) The job must involve some sort of CASH payment (either immediately, or through a system of exchanges of points/rewards).

More on the job hunt when... well, when it gets more exciting!

Week 1 - The Hunt Begins

I've started my journey. It's simple on paper. I want to earn $3000 CDN a month, working from home. I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but I want to keep track of this journey in hopes that it'll help other stay-at-home moms be able to do something similar.

I've gone on many internet searches, and at the moment, I've earned $0, apart from the current gig I have of freelance writing, which pays roughly $250 CDN a month. Enough to put some food on the table for maybe half a month if I'm careful!

So, what I've found so far that seems viable:
- Becoming an expert on justanswers.com: You sign up, take some tests, they approve you. Then, you can apply to answer people's questions for various amounts of money. The money will then be transferred to your Paypal account. I'm still waiting on the approval for me being an "expert."
- Writing for about.com: It sounded easy enough, and the articles I've read on there previously have always seemed a bit lame. BUT, it turns out that they have some pretty stringent requirements. I haven't had time to apply yet, but I'm hoping to get the job.
- Answering surveys: I've signed up for a number of these that supposedly pay money. I'll write a list of them later if and when they look like they might be money-makers.
- Focus Groups: Many of these jobs require me to actually leave the house, but since it's only for two hours at the most, it's doable.
- Swagbucks: I've heard good things about this, but I'm wary of anything that takes my name and knows what sites I'm searching and what goods I'm buying. I'm holding off on earning Swagbucks to trade for Paypal cash right now.
- Tutor.com: Applied, but they don't have a need for tutors with my background right now. Too bad :(.

Week 1: Total Weekly earnings: ~$85