Up Another $40 a Month

Since my last update, I've now increased my monthly earnings by a whopping $40 a month (before taxes) by helping with updating a website.

At this rate, I'll be very dead before I make my goal of $3000 a month after taxes.

I have, however, learned a lot on this journey:

1) Don't use your regular email or send your résumé for job postings you find on kijiji or craigslist. Fortunately, I was smart enough to call State Farm after I "got the job" to do data entry at home (They never used the company name until AFTER I had gotten the job). It was very suspicious that they needed to send a technician to my home to set up a printer. Funnily enough, I have no longer gotten any more offers ever since I started emailing first to ask them to email me if they'd like to see my résumé.

2) It's time to start figuring out whether I can contribute to E.I. being "self-employed." BUT, the problem is that you can't get through to E.I. at all. They are too busy to pick up the phone. As for leaving a message? Forget about it.

3) I've now expanded and am considering jobs that require me to leave my house. The criteria:

• Within 5-8km from my house
• Must allow me to be home by 11pm
• 20 hours a week/max (if it's an evening/weekend job) - but I'm a bit flexible with this one!
• If it's a daytime job, it can only be three days a week
• And if it's a daytime job, it has to not only cover babysitting for my littlest one, but it has to make me enough money for it to be worthwhile to leave my baby. Aside from the fact that there are few three-days-a-week jobs, I calculated that I would have to earn between $40/hour AT LEAST to cover childcare costs (for both kids). And guess what? Nobody seems to want to pay $40/hour for a part-time job...

4) I really have no time now that my kids are older, plus I feel like I should be a mom if I'm going to stay home to be a mom (meaning little to no computer use when they're awake). So with about 2-3 hours a day to do online work, that means I'm not getting close to the monetary goal...

5) I thought I could start to build websites. Good work-from-home gig, right? Turns out learning to build a website may take a little longer than I had planned. I've now enrolled in an introductory HTML course. It's good knowledge, but golly gee, I'm definitely not going to be getting paid to build websites any time soon!

6) Becoming an accountant is another big plan of mine. BUT, it seems to be backfiring before I even start. A) I need money to take courses. B) Before you can get an accounting designation, you actually have to get a job doing accounting... for at least TWO YEARS. I don't have two years and I don't want to/can't go back to work full time yet.

7) I was offered an opportunity through a friend on FB, but I really haven't had time to consider it or learn something new like that. I'll have to find some time to look at that to see if it can work!

So the total now? About $265 a month (before taxes). Not even 10% to the goal. HELP! :)

The Journey - Continues?

So the journey came to a pretty abrupt halt as soon as my husband went back to work. Turns out there'd be very little computer time for earning a living online with two young children!

So, to fill you all in on the almost 5-month-gap since I've last written in this blog, I've earned about 1 swagbuck a day, and along with the help of my cousin who kindly linked her swagbucks to mine so I'd get referral points, I've now made a grand total of over 2500 swagbucks. Which gives me approximately $10 in Paypal cash, and almost $25 in Amazon cash. That's $2-$5 per month I've earned in that game.

A more lucrative gig has been getting my baby to model. Yep, that's right. She's out in the workforce. Unfortunately, despite the calls she's gotten, it is definitely not nearing me/my family to the goal of $3000/month. Averaged out over 5 months, this gig has gained us about $16/month, not including the gas money spent getting to and from the photo shoots!

So, if you have any ideas, send them my way. The criteria: little computer time, lots of money, must be legal and ethical and biblical.

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.