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45% of US employees work from home and 53 million people work as freelancers, according to a New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Online MBA Program.
I am one of those 53 million freelancers. I do not make a full-time income because I only work about 15 hours a week and I only make my income from a few sources, but I do make a decent enough income to be able to stay at home with my children and still contribute to the household expenses.
In April 2015, my husband had received orders to be moved to our next duty station. I was working full-time, out of the home at the time, while our child went to daycare. Finding someone that I fully trust to watch my child is difficult. Since I knew nothing about the area we were moving to, I decided I’d rather be able to stay at home with my child and still work from home.
I was in search of online work, that allowed me to work from home, had a flexible schedule, and it didn’t have to be quiet while I did the work. I didn’t need to fully replace my income from my full-time job because I wouldn’t be paying for daycare. We were also moving to a cheaper part of the country where cost of living wasn’t quite as expensive.
By May 2015, I found some sources of income and have been relying on them ever since.
I mostly make an income from working as a search engine evaluator and completing online surveys. I also make money using apps to get money back on my groceries.
Other articles you may find helpful:
12 Ultimate Side Hustles to earn extra money for the holidays
77 Ways to Save Money without Sacrificing
How to make $1,000 a month online
You can do this too! Be one of the 53 million freelancers or 45% who telework from home! There are many opportunities available for moms looking for work at home.
How is it possible?
There are so many ways possible, let me count the ways.
First off, start with your shopping…
None of these are huge money makers, and you aren’t going to make a livable income with these, but if you use them throughout the year, and save the rebates, you’ll have a nice little savings for Christmas presents at the end of the year.
That’s what I do each year. I’ve signed up for each of these, save all the cash back I receive and come Christmas time, the extra spending doesn’t hurt our budget as much.
Walmart Price Catcher
If you shop at Walmart, use their price catcher on their app! It’s very simple! All you do is scan your receipt after you shop and they’ll search local ads for lower advertised pricing! I also add this in with my Christmas shopping money and end up with an extra $100+ a year. (This year, I’ll probably have even more since I’m already at over $40 and it’s only March)
I have heard that it depends on the area and how much rebates you actually get from Walmart with their price catcher.
Ebates
You most likely have heard of this site before. If you haven’t signed up for Ebates yet, it’s time you do so. Sign up through this link now and receive a $10 credit in your account once you make a qualifying purchase! Ebates is easy to use. Shop online, like you usually do, and earn cash back on each purchase you make from clicking through Ebates.
Whenever I have a vacation to plan, I book all my hotels through Ebates and earn back a significant amount from my purchases. Ebates makes it easy to use on your computer by downloading their chrome bar button. It’ll notify you every time you are looking at a site that they are partners with so you never miss a chance to earn cash back.
Ibotta
Ibotta is a grocery app to download on your phone. Browse through the items they have available for rebates. After shopping, go back to the app to verify your purchases! It’s easy to earn extra money every time you go grocery shopping! Sign up now and you’ll receive $10! Just use referral code jkc2g
Checkout 51
Checkout 51 is another app like Ibotta that allows you to get paid for the purchases you make. Again, you browse through what they have available for rebates. After shopping, verify your purchases on the app. What I like about Checkout 51 is that you can also redeem rebates for purchases you make online! So when I order toilet paper, or paper towels online, I can receive a rebate for those purchases (if that product is available for a rebate at that time).
Click here to signup with Checkout 51!
Money Making Apps
Givling
I love my Givling app. You have a chance of making money, but chances are slim to make money daily unless you’re really good at trivia!
This app offers daily rewards for the top team for answering trivia questions. You get 2 free plays a day, or you can buy coins to play. You are randomly assigned to a team of 3. The top scorer on the top team wins the majority of the pot, 2nd place gets a little less, and 3rd place gets the least amount of the daily pot. I have not earned any money on my teams, but my husband has randomly won and they sent a check when he did win.
I’m not really playing for the random daily chances to win, though. Givling’s main goal is to pay off student loans (up to $50,000) but if you don’t have any student loans, they’ll pay up to $25,000 towards a home loan. There are many different ways to get in the queue to have your loans paid and you can read about that on Givlings page.
Panel App
Earn points for completing surveys on your phone and redeem those points for gift cards, prizes, and rewards.
Panel App from Google Play store
Mobee
This app is a secret shopper app. Sign up and receive secret shopping missions to complete at various retailers and restaurants.
Download for Android! Use code JC3D to receive bonus points, to begin with!
Making money through Survey Sites
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a great way to earn points that you can trade in for gift cards to popular stores. You earn points by:
- Searching through their search engine instead of Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
- Watching video commercials
- Completing surveys
- Shopping
- Playing games
- And much more!
You don’t earn many points at a time, but they start adding up the more you complete each task. Sign up through this link, and you could receive up to a $5 bonus in your account!
Earning Station
Earning station is a great website to start earning gift cards online. It’s easy to use and boasts about their high-paying survey offers, discount shopping offers, and other ways to earn.
Sign up now to check out what Earning Station has to offer.
Harris Poll Online
Harris Poll Online is similar to the other survey sites. Sign up, complete surveys, and get points that you can cash in for other great rewards. They offer interesting surveys to help companies with their policies, products, and services.
Check them out now and sign up for a free account.
Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is an easy website to easily earn points that you can use towards money. 1000 points are equal to $10.00. Simply complete surveys and earn points on your account.
Sign up now with Survey Junkie!
SurveySavvy
I’ve been a member of SurveySavvy for awhile now. It’s very easy. You simply download their program onto your computer, and they’ll send notifications when there’s a new survey ready to complete. You won’t qualify for all the surveys, but they have a good payout for your efforts on the surveys you qualify for. Every survey that is available to you will be on the program. The surveys say an approximate amount of time it’ll take to complete and the amount of money you get for completing the survey.
Click here to sign up for SurveySavvy and start earning money through them!
Ipsos I-Say
This is a survey company I recently joined. You complete surveys on your phone, tablet, or computer, and earn points that you can use towards gift cards for popular restaurants and retailers. You can even earn points for a Visa Prepaid card so you can spend it anywhere that takes Visa. They have a loyalty program for their users. The more surveys you complete, the more bonus points you get added to your account!
Click here to start earning with Ipsos I-Say!
Flexible ways to earn money that you control how much you make each month
Amazon Mturk
Amazon Mturk is filled with what is called HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) HITs are small tasks you can complete to earn small amounts of money. It is filled with tasks for $.01 and $.02, but if you search, you can find the higher paying tasks. I use this website to find the higher paying tasks. The tasks are quick to complete and range in what it requires. There is some surveys, typing, video watching, the range is long. Some tasks require qualifications and it’ll take time to get to those qualifications. But you can find plenty of tasks that don’t require the qualifications.
Click here to sign up for Amazon Mturk to start earning
Lionbridge
Lionbridge is a search engine evaluation site, which means you are given tasks to compare search engine results for its usefulness. The application process is long. You have to complete tests in order to qualify, but once you do qualify, there are regular tasks for you to complete. A person can work up to 20 hours a week. Sometimes, if they have a lot of work that needs to get done, they’ll approve people to work extra hours.
Once you begin working with Lionbridge, they provide monthly webinars to help provide feedback on the rating tasks. It is very helpful to attend the webinars to review the guidelines and get a better understanding of the rating tasks.
Click here to search the work from home opportunities available.
Other sites that offer flexible search engine evaluation jobs are:
User Testing
User Testing provides feedback to companies by giving them a video of a user (you) testing their website. You get paid $10 just for recording yourself testing a website. It is quite simple. You sign up with their website. Complete the system test to ensure you have the right equipment to complete the tasks. Then visit the sites and record your experience with the site.
Sign up for User Testing now to start earning money!
Other companies offering work from home opportunities
Plus so much more!
With 53 million freelancers and 45% of employers allowing teleworking, there’s more than enough work available for you to also begin working from home. If you have a desire to stay home with your kids, have flexibility in your work, and work in your pajamas, then look into some of the jobs I have listed off! You won’t regret it!
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This is awesome that you found a way to stay home with your child and make some extra cash! The cost of childcare is crazy expensive so I’m glad you found a solution that works well for your family!
Congratulations on being able to make income as a SAHM. I don’t know if these companies are american only, I’m from Canada and I’m not sure if these apps or companies offer their stuff over here.. but I’ll check them out! Thanks for sharing!
I know Lionbridge offers work at home opportunities all over the world. I don’t know if the others offer their programs in Canada though!
I signed up for Amazon Mturk but never got anything done. I felt the penny stuff was a waste of time because my internet is slow so just waiting for the page to load wasn’t worth a penny.
That’s how I felt for the penny tasks but I found a website on reddit that shows some higher paying tasks. Also, when I make sure to change the search for a minimum of an amount I want vs weeding through all the penny tasks!
I think it’s wonderful that there are so many options out there to make a little extra cash while staying home with our babies! Having a little gig on the side also helps us mamas feel fulfilled, at least it does for me!
Very nice that you found some extra income while being able to do your #1 job of being a stellar mama!
I am a big fan of swagbucks it is a great website. I use the app shopkicks and it is amazing while shopping 🙂