Over 100 posts

Whoo Hooo!!! The previous post was my 100th blog post. I just realized it today. Quite the milestone.

Anyway, I have an idea for a head to head comparision for June. I've joined two survey sites and I'll do as many surveys as they will give me for the month of June. During the month I'll give periodic updates and then at the end of June I will declare a winner.

I use to do alot of these challenges and I think I will start doing them again.

Looking at expenses

Over the years I have occasionally done spot checks on my expenses. This is a prudent thing for everyone to do, especially beach bums. In the past I have made the decision to drop my newspaper service, to bundle my Internet-phone-cable, drop my cell phone service, and automate several recurring expenses in order to eliminate late fees.

This time I'm going to drop my home phone service. This one is scary as I don't have a personal cell phone. But I'll be saving close to $50.00 per month, which translates to almost $600.00 per year. So the question is can a beach bum, like myself, live with out a phone in this age of electronic communication? Time will tell.

I did purchase a MagicJack for $39.95 but it makes my Internet connection fail. I can use the voice mail aspect of MagicJack to let me know when people want to get a hold of me but I would have to email them to let them know I received their message.

My phoneless adventure will begin next week. Wish me luck.

Trying out another paid survey site

My first foray into getting paid to fill out offers resulted in my inbox being crushed with spam. The first website is not truly a paid survey site and I don't recommend it (cough) CashCrate (/cough).

This site (which I'll name after I decide if they are worth a plug or not) is a true paid survey site. So far I've been pretty happy with it. The number of surveys seems adequate and the points per survey are fair. I'm close to $20.00 so far and once I go over $20.00 I'll cash out. Once that happens I'll post my overall conclusions.

If I feel they deserve a plug I'll create an affiliate link that you can follow. I would earn $1.00 for each referral that completes a survey.

FYI: (cough)(/cough) is a SSHTML tag

YouData now offers a referral program

Yeah!!! Finally!!! Youdata allows members to refer others and offers compensation for it.

Quick refresher about YouData as I had a previous post about it. You signup [hopefully with one of my links] and fill out your MeFile and answer as many of the surveys as you feel comfortable with. You can then view targeted ads for money!!! You can even view targeted ads right from this blog by using the "adget" in the sidebar. Typically they pay about $0.05 per ad viewed. If you follow the associated link you will earn extra. A recent link was priced at $0.15. So $0.20 for about 20 seconds of my time. Not all bad. You do need a PayPay account to participate.

FYI: When using the "adget" you have the option to give me a tip. The tip is automatically set to 50%. If you do not wish to leave a tip [which is fine as I earn a tiny bit anyway] you will need to reset the tip meter to 100% going to you. I don't want anyone mad at me if they miss the tip meter setting. I did NOT setup the tip feature that way.

If you like to make a little cash here and there on the Internet this might fit into your endeavors. If so consider taking my referral link. Also if you are still reading, I will pay the first five referrals all of the money earned from their referral for one month to the PayPal account of their choice. It probably won't be much but in today's economy every little thing helps.

My new rewards card plan

I recently acquired a Marriott Rewards Credit Card [MRCC]. It offers a points based reward system that is tied into their Marriott Rewards Account. I've been a user of the regular rewards account for a number of years. My old job had me traveling more than I am currently so the reward points have not been growing very fast. I am hoping that the MRCC will turbo charge my rewards account.

My normal bill payment method had been using the billpayer service from my credit union. The rare exception was using my debit card to pay my cable bill or actually writing a check [how 20th century]. I've started switching some of my bills to my MRCC.

In order to keep my credit card bill from getting to outrageous I've setup a recurring payment on my billpayer account to automatically send about half of my monthly bill total to my MRCC. This will also keep me from getting late fees. As I add new bills into my little plan I calculate a new recurring payment and update the recurring payment.

So someday maybe my bills will help me take my dream trip.... a vacation in the south Pacific to do a little surfing.

CentPoker

CentPoker is another website from the same folks that brought us CentSports.  After you sign up they give you 100 chips with which you can play poker against other players.  If you loose all 100 chips, no worries they give you another 100 to play with.  Similar idea to CentSports when you loose you will still be able to play.  

If you like poker and don't want to risk your hard earned money this is a good option.  I've taken my 100 chips and now have 1,677 chips in my account.  These chips represent my percentage of the community pot.  The community pot is the amount of advertising dollars that CentPoker has earned.  As of today the community pot stands at $1,500 and my portion of this pot is a whopping $.21 but as my chip total increases and the pot increases my portion will increase.  

Disclosure:  If you join through my link I will earn 10 chips every day that you login and play.  

First private ad sale

Yea!!!! I made my first private ad sale recently. Not a huge sale but a sale none the less. I was contacted directly via email. I have to admit that the initial inquiry itself was pretty exciting. I emailed back and forth determining what kind of ad placement was wanted and ultimately made an offer that included ad spots on three websites for a month.

My offer was accepted and payment was made. So up went her ads. I hope that she likes the results and would like to continue the relationship going forward.

Turning a closet into a pantry

With the economy in the dumper we decided that saving money should be a priority.  And one way to save money is to purchase in bulk when items are on sale.  When you purchase in bulk you need a place to store the items.  Of course one of our largest monthly bills is groceries.  Hence the pantry.

The closet is just inside the door to the garage by the kitchen so it is convenient for food storage.  We use to hang coats and put footwear underneath but we decided that all of that could go in the closet by the front door.

So off to Meijer to purchase some shelving.  Close to $100.00 later we have four good sized shelves ready for food.  It could have been less expensive but we wanted something that looked fairly nice.

We will now purchase canned goods, boxed meals, juice, paper towel, napkins, Ramon noodles, etc in large quantities when they go on sale.  The pantry will also allow us to see exactly what we have without trying to find something buried in a cupboard.  Having the pantry was an expense up front but in the long run the savings will be much greater.

Thanks to my CentSports cronies

I have had several people join CentSports through my links. When this occurs they become a crony. As a crony when they win I win. When I login to CentSports most days I have what I like to call the "Crony Windfall." It usually runs between $.05 and $.25 but recently my cronies have been doing really well and I actually received $.93 yesterday.

Another day like that along with some successful bets of my own and I'll exceed the $10.00 mark for the first time.

Thank You Cronies!!!

Giving YouData a shot

One of my newer income alternatives is YouData.  Basically you setup what they call a MeFile and then you get paid to view advertising.  

The MeFile contains bits of personal information that help YouData match you with advertising.  When you view an ad it is called selling you attention.  You will typically earn $.20 per ad that you view and visit the advertiser's website.

In about a month I have sold my attention for just under $3.00.  They don't have ads to view everyday but there is usually one or two a week.  YouData does take a fee out when transfering your weekly payment to PayPal.