Welcome to Day 7 of the 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge!

We are currently working our way through the sites that will become a part of our Daily 20 Minute Extra Cash Checklist.

So far we’ve signed up for these websites to earn free stuff, gift cards and cash:

Swagbucks

MyPoints

Inbox Dollars

SendEarnings

What’s New Today?

You are probably familiar with a variety of loyalty programs that reward you with prizes when you buy a certain number of their products. If you are a loyal customer of any product with a rewards program, I highly recommend signing up to earn FREE stuff if you are going to buy it anyway!

But did you know that certain loyalty programs offer FREE codes and points-earning opportunities on a regular basis for anyone to use – whether you use their product or not? It’s this type of rewards program that we are going to focus on today because we are all about FREE around here.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up for these rewards programs. I regularly post FREE codes for these sites that will earn you gift cards and more over time: 

• Pampers Rewards: Codes pop up a few times a month and are typically worth 10 – 25 points. Most codes expire quickly, so you’ll want to check for new codes often. Rewards vary but range from photo books to toys to Vera Bradley items and more. You don’t need a baby in diapers, but if you have one, you can also redeem codes from any Pampers products that you purchase. Check here for new free codes.

• Recyclebank: Recyclebank is very generous with their free points and it’s free for anyone to join.  (Only select locations can participate in their recycling rewards program, however.) Also, did you know that you can earn 5 points daily by taking their daily pledge on the right side of the ‘Earn Points’ page? Their rewards also vary, but they often have Amazon, Target or Starbucks gift cards and more. $5 gift cards start at 1500 points.  Check here for new points earning opportunities.

• Kellogg’s Family Rewards Codes: Kellogg’s Family Rewards codes pop up quite often (in fact, check out this long list of FREE KFR codes). They have TONS of rewards options, including Starbucks gift cards, free Redbox rentals, iTunes gift cards and much more. If you purchase Kellogg’s products, be sure to enter those codes as well. Check here for new free codes.

How about you? Can you recommend any other sites that offer free codes and points? Leave a comment and let’s help each other out!

Up next: There’s an App for that!

Welcome to Day 6 of the 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge!

We are currently working our way through the sites that will become a part of our Daily 20 Minute Extra Cash Checklist.

So far we’ve signed up for and learned easy ways to earn free stuff, gift cards and cash with:

Swagbucks

What’s New Today?

Today we are covering one of the easiest ways to earn rewards – by clicking through emails! I’ve been a member of rewards programs like this for close to 10 years and have earned hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards – mainly just by reading emails. Yes – it takes a while for the rewards to earn up, but you’ll see by the per-hour wage I have listed below that it’s a great wage for the time it takes! (I based it on the assumption that it takes about 5 seconds to open and click through an email.)

Sign up for these 3 sites to start earning rewards just by clicking on an email:

• MyPoints: Earn 5 points per paid email that you click through. $10 gift card rewards start at 1600 points, so each email earns you about $0.03. Hourly wage: $22.50/hr.

• Inbox Dollars: Earn $0.02 per paid email that you click through. Hourly wage: $14.40/hr. $5 bonus just for signing up. Cash out when you reach $30.

• Send Earnings: Also earn $0.02 per paid email that you click through. Hourly wage: $14.40/hr. $5 bonus just for signing up.

You can expect to receive 2 – 4 paid emails per day from each of these sites.  Each of the emails will have a special offer – you do not need to sign up for them, but just click through the email in order to earn your points or cash. If you find an offer that you’d like to sign up for, typically it will earn you more cash or points. However, be sure that you only sign up for offers that actually benefit you.

Note: Some of the emails that you receive will not earn you points or money. You can opt out of these emails in your account settings.

Simplify your email.

I highly recommend either setting up an email address specifically for these sites or setting up specific folders in your current email address where these emails will end up.

If you don’t know how to set up rules for specific folders, you can learn how to do so by clicking through the following links:

How to set up email filters for Gmail.

How to set up email filters for Hotmail.

How to set up email filters for Yahoo.

How to set up email filters for AOL.

This is what my email filters look like (it’s been a few days since I’ve checked them – oops!):

By setting up specific email filters, it will make your 20 Minute Daily Checklist that much easier to speed through. You’ll be able to open a folder and zip right through it, rather than searching for emails in your inbox.

How about you? Can you recommend any other sites that pay you to read emails? Leave a comment and let’s help each other out!

Up next: Free Codes Please.

Welcome to Day 4 of the 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge!

Now that we’ve discussed the rewards we are working for and getting more bang for our buck, it’s time to create The Extra Cash Plan.

Since the whole point of this challenge is earning extra cash in just 20 minutes each day, I just need to point out one more thing before we begin (I promise…this is it. We’ll start getting cash in your pockets soon!):

You know what they say about Slow and Steady. It totally applies here!

Patience and Focus are key.

Obviously, none of the sites we join are going to pay us $5 for a five second task. Sure, that would be awesome, but they’d go out of business.

And if we are only going to spend 20 minutes per day working on this challenge, we need to be sure we are focused on the tasks that will guarantee the highest payout for time spent – and not get distracted by all the other stuff thrown our way.

So here is The Extra Cash Plan:

Over the next few days, I am going to introduce you to my top favorite sites for online earnings. I’m going to walk you through which tasks are the most rewarding for the time spent. In the end, we will have a daily checklist that we can work through in 20 minutes each day. By taking advantage of a variety of earning opportunities, we’ll earn cash more quickly and have more time for smelling the roses or watching sunsets or whatever else you like to do in your free time!

That’s The Plan. The Daily Checklist will be your ticket to earning extra cash (or Starbucks drinks or Amazon gift cards or electronics or _________ fill in the blank!) online in just minutes each day!

Up next: Let’s start earning! 

More from this Challenge:

Day 1 – The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge – Will You Join Me?

Day 2  – The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge – Eye on the Prize

Day 3 –  The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge – More Bang for your Buck

Welcome to Day 3 of the 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge!

First of all, have you shared what reward you are saving up for yet? If you haven’t, head over here to do so – I’ll wait.

Done? Awesome – now let’s talk about getting more bang for our buck!

You see, I have a philosophy when it comes to earning extra cash online.  It has two parts:

1. Time is Money.

Truth: The time we spend earning extra cash online is only as valuable as we allow it to be. 

The truth is, you need to take into consideration how much your time is worth. If you are spending hours and hours each day online looking for ways to earn extra cash and those hours aren’t resulting in much more than a few dollars per day then that’s a very poor return on investment. There are much better ways to earn extra cash.

On the other hand, if we can determine which earning opportunities pay us the most per hour and focus on those – even for just 20 minutes per day – then that’s what we call getting more bang for our buck!

For example, getting paid $0.02 to read an email doesn’t seem like much. But if it only takes 5 seconds to read that email, that translates to $14.40 per hour – which is a fantastic per hour wage! Sounds a whole lot better than getting paid just two cents, doesn’t it? 🙂

Your time is valuable. If you can spend less time earning more extra cash online, that frees up time for other methods of saving and earning money!

2. Maximize the opportunities that benefit YOU. Ignore the opportunities that don’t. 

Truth: If you are spending money that you don’t intend to spend in order to earn extra cash, then it really isn’t “extra”. 

Plain and simple. Most sites that are offering ways to earn extra cash also want you to spend cash. Unless you already intended to purchase that item, don’t spend cash to earn cash.  The last thing I want to do is to encourage my readers to lose money in this challenge!

It’s important to recognize that, just like us, the sites we join all want to earn money. They are going to offer all types of rewards and benefits to entice you to spend money so they can benefit. Don’t do it. Make choices that benefit yourself.

There really are valid ways to earn cash and rewards for FREE.  Will it take a little longer to earn them? Yes – but in the end, it really will be extra cash.

Before we move on, can we all agree to two things? 

• We will just say NO to offers that require us to spend more time than they are worth.

• We will just say NO to offers that require us to spend money.

Promise?

Coming up next? Offers we can say YES to!

More in this series: 

Day 1 – The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge – Will You Join Me?

Day 2  – The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge – Eye on the Prize

Welcome to Day 2 of the 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge!

I can’t wait to start teaching you my system for earning extra cash online. But before we get down to the nuts and bolts of things, we have a VERY important question we all need to answer:

What reward are you saving for?

You see, this series is really not intended to earn us extra cash that will just be thrown into the black hole of our checking accounts. There really is no fun in these earnings going toward your electric bill, am I right?

In the past, I have saved up my earnings for everything from a new Toshiba tablet to Starbucks gift cards to overnight trips. I love finding creative ways to set aside extra funds for the stuff that our weekly budget might not cover. That’s what this challenge is all about!

So what reward do you think would make a fantastic goal for your $10, $20 or $30 in extra cash and gift cards each month – or hundreds of dollars a year ?

Maybe these ideas will inspire you:

-an iPod

-new patio furniture

-a weekly Starbucks visit (without the guilt!)

-a new camera

-gas money for a trip

-a KitchenAid mixer (one reader saved up and bought one with the Amazon gift cards she earned through Swagbucks!)

-restaurant gift cards

-new shoes

Or  – like me – maybe you’d like to save up so you can slash your Christmas budget each year.

Or maybe you have a totally different awesome idea.

Without a reward in mind, this 20 minute challenge will likely not work for you. So before we move on – let’s set our eyes on the prize.

What reward are YOU saving for? Leave a comment and share!

More in this series:

Day 1 – The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge – Will You Join Me?

I have a little project I’ve been working on behind the scenes and I’m inviting YOU to join me.

If you’ve been around here for long, you know that I’m a BIG fan of getting FREE stuff online. Whether it’s gift cards or cash, each time I earn something FREE online, I get giddy.

Whether I’m saving money for Christmas or earning extra cash online in 31 days, I’m constantly looking for the best ways to add to my online savings.

My latest project is an upcoming series: The 20 Minute Extra Cash Challenge.

This month I plan to focus on the BEST ways you can add extra cash to your pocket (or your piggy bank!) in just 20 minutes a day. I’m going to take you through a Step-by-Step system that will help you learn the best ways to earn cash, gift cards and FREE stuff in the shortest amount of time.

Will you get rich? Nope. Will you have more cash? Yep! Will you have more fun? I sure think so!

Will you join me?? Stay tuned for my first post tomorrow to get this fun series started!

New around here? Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter so you can follow along with the fun! You can also check out the rest of the series here.

Up next: Keep your eye on the prize!