Prudent and Practical

September 29, 2009

3 Ways to Make Money Driving

Filed under: Featured,money — Tags: job, money, saving money — K @ 8:51 PM

Recently I ran across an interesting car question on a forum I frequently visit.  I got to wondering how you can make money by driving.  Some of these options use your own car, others don’t.mercedes car wheel 300x199 photo 3 Ways to Make Money Driving

1 – Be an Independent Contractor. Here I’m talking specifically about being an errand runner.  You can do small jobs for the elderly, new moms, and busy people.  Jobs might be getting groceries, going to the post office, or delivering items around town.

2 – A new concept to me is having your car wrapped.  The company puts a high quality removable advertisement over your entire car.  One company that does this is Car Wraps.  There are quite a few other sites that offer this, so do your research before applying.  It may take days or months to get picked.  Some clients are picky about the size and type of car  that will bear their ad while others require you to drive a certain number of miles.  If you have a unique automobile, drive a lot, and live in a big city, you have a better chance of getting picked.  The ad may need to be on your car from a couple months to a couple years and you can get paid up to $900 per month!  Like mystery shopping, do not pay a site to give you a list of companies.

Of the five companies, I only found Better Business Bureau reports for two of them.

There are three directories that apparently list smaller, regional car wrap companies.  I’m leery of paying for directory listings since I’ve been scammed before, so I have not paid to check them out.

3 – A way to make money driving is to be a test driver for car dealerships.  I first read about this on Centsible.net.  You can make $25-$50, usually in the form of gift cards, per drive.  I signed up for a couple companies newsletters and haven’t heard anything in over one year, but I do live in a smaller town.  According to Centsible:

You will need to get on the mailing lists of these car manufacturers, and read what they send you! Be sure to enter all competitions put on by these automobile manufacturers, and keep up to date on our forums. We have two boards on test driving: one where you can sign up online for test drives, the other where you can get a heads up on offers that are arriving in the mail.

Bonus -  This last idea is not a money making idea but a money saving idea.  I still  have not fixed my car.  D’s parents mentioned recently that if we’re not driving it, to shut the insurance off until we decide to start using it again.  This would save us approximately $40 per month.  I wish I would have known about this before as we could have saved almost $200 by now.  Since mystery shopping has slowed down with the economy, I only use D’s car for the big jobs once or twice per month, so being a one car household is currently working for us.  I left a message for my insurance agent, so I’ll let you know what they say when I hear back.

I hope I’ve opened your eyes a little and given you some ideas on how to put some extra cash in your pockets.  If you have other ideas not listed here or opinions, I’d love to hear from you!

Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos.

April 27, 2009

How Much Will I Make When I Graduate?

Filed under: General — Tags: job, money — K @ 1:39 AM


Cool climate greenhouses extend the growing season
Image via Wikipedia

So, I”m finishing up my bachelor’s degree in a couple weeks.  After seven years, three different majors, three different colleges, and quitting school once for six months, I will finally have my B.S. in Horticulture!  Horticulture is the study of cultivated plants, similar to botany, but a wider field.  Common jobs include working for major corporations doing research (think Monsanto, Syngenta, and Pioneer), landscape design, landscape/grounds maintenance, greenhouse or nursery management, or golf course superintendent.  I could also work at an arboretum, botanical garden, publisher, or for the USDA.  If I wanted to continue my education, I could be a professor.

See, I know my options and I have a general idea about the job outlook.  I’m nervous about the economy though.  I’ve been looking for jobs and from everybody I’ve gotten, “Well, we’re not hiring this year.”  Economy, I think they’re saying it’s your fault!

There are a few sites that I use to find jobs:

  • Hort Jobs is for those seeking a horticulture type job
  • Indeed.com is a comprehensive search.  They cover other websites such as (Career Builder and Monster) as well as online newspaper jobs.
  • Workforce Development in my area lists a lot of cleaning, gas station, and metal fabrication jobs, but occasionally a hort-type job shows up.  Most jobs require little to no experience but frequently there are jobs that require an associates or bachelor’s degree.  I’ve found that employers in my area don’t want to hire someone who’s over qualified.

If you aren’t sure what you want to do when you “grow up,” there are a few different places where you can research a variety of college fields and the coresponding pay.

  • The Bureau of Labor and Statistic’s Occupational Outlook Handbook allows you to search for many different fields.  They have very detailed explanations of occupations as well as salary information and future outlook.
  • PayScale offers different options for checking salaries.  Jobseekers can check on pay rates depending on field and location.
  • Salary.com is similar to Payscale.
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April 22, 2009

Free Stuff? How Can I Mystery Shop Too?

Filed under: money — Tags: free, job, online, shopping — K @ 3:36 PM

How I Got Started & A Word of Caution

A while back, I stated that I would write an article about mystery shopping… so here it is!  Back in my early college days, I got an email that said something like, “Get paid to shop!”  I knew little about spam and scams at that time, so I paid a $20 fee to get started.  Although it was dumb of me to not only spend money I didn’t have, but I spent money on a company that I knew nothing about in attempt to make money.  When I got into their “portal,” it was a never ending list of surveys and complete-this-offer-to-mystery-shop.  But there were a couple real mystery shopping companies on that list and I was lucky enough to find them and write down their names.  Knowing I was scammed, I called the company to cancel my membership.  The line was constantly busy, even at off-peak times, so I called my credit card company.  I explained what happened and they reversed the charge – thank goodness!

(I tell you this little back story, not to scare you, but to let you know what happened to me.  Granted this is a very small incident compared to the cashier-check scams out there, but there are scams out there!  Don’t fall for them – listen to your intuition.  Don’t ever ever ever cash a cashier’s check or money order that was sent to you by someone you don’t know.  This scammers send you a check/money order.  You deposit the money into your own account and then send the majority of it back.  Time goes by and then your bank contacts you saying that you owe them hundreds or thousands of dollars for a fake check/MO.  Guess what?  When you contact the company you got the check/MO from, they are looooong gone and don’t exist anymore.  They have the money and leave you to pay up what is owed plus the fees.  Many scammers are also impersonating MSPs now too, so you need be cautious.)

Fast forward a few years to 2006, I hit my worst.  I quit school, my Mary Kay director quit, I was in a town one hour from any family and friends (except for D), and I had creditors calling me left and right.  Desperate, I found that little piece of paper with mystery shopping companies on it and started doing assignments.  Mystery shopping provided me with something to do with my time, a way to interact with people, and a way to make money.  I’ve been consistently mystery shopping since January 2006, but got more serious about it in June 2008.

February 27, 2009

Creative Ways to Make Money Part 4: Miscellaneous Jobs

Filed under: money — Tags: job, money — K @ 1:32 PM

This final installment of Creative Ways to Make Money explores more traditional jobs as well as some non-traditional jobs.  Please see important information following the job sections.  There you will find some tips for making money on your own, a warning about scams, and some good resources!

(more…)

February 20, 2009

Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work

Filed under: General — Tags: Add new tag, job, money — K @ 3:49 AM

With advancing technology, we now have the advantage of computers and the internet.

  • Write a book or an eBook.  Click the links for more information.
  • Become a telecommunications rep. Cloud 10, LiveOps, Alpine Access, Arise, West at Home, and Working Solutions have been featured on tv shows and news articles. The National Telecommunications Institute features work-at-home jobs for Americans with disabilities. You will probably need a dedicated room for business (no screaming kids or loud pets), a headset, high speed internet connection, and possibly a second land line phone specifically for business. Some companies pays for the time you’re on the phone and others pays per hour (whether you’re on the phone or not).  Make sure you understand the payment terms before you do work for them.
  • Get a membership with a drop shipping company and sell online. Saturation online (ie: eBay) may lead to lower profits. With drop shipping, you order the products and the company sends them to the purchaser so you never have to deal with inventory. Homestead, Dropship Direct, and Doba are a couple known drop shipping companies. There are a lot of drop ship companies out there and they’re all slightly different, so thoroughly research them before you sign up.
  • Create personalized items at CafePress or Zazzle. It’s free to join, with the option of a premium account later on if you want.
  • Start your own store online. If you have a website, you can add Amazon Marketplace. You pick what items you like from Amazon’s website and post on your site. You then make a commission when someone buys an Amazon item from your website!
  • Yuwie is a some peer to peer money making program. Apparently you make money by referring other people but it doesn’t cost you a dime. I DO NOT recommend CashCrate because you have to sign up for “free offers” which will then charge you if you don’t cancel within a certain amount of time and they download files to your computer. If you’re still interested in CashCrate, read Tori’s story.
  • Create a website or blog and monetize it. You need a domain and a host. You can then add Google Adsense and affiliates to make money.
  • Make a few extra bucks with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The idea behind this is that computers can’t do the jobs, so they post the jobs on a board. Pay is usually very low, but there are a lot of jobs. Jobs are similar to this: “Find the item number for the product in this image.”
  • Make skins or applications for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. If your idea is genius, a large development firm could purchase the rights for a lot of money. You can also pay $99 to develop programs for Apple’s iPhone – you get to keep 70% of the profits.
  • Become a freelancer. Elance lists a lot of jobs. A lot of the jobs are technology based (ie: create a website or Java applet) but a search for something in your field could find you something. You apply for jobs by bidding against others who are after the same job. You can also write articles for e-How, Constant Content, or become an About.com expert/guide. Copyeditors and Illustrators are also freelance jobs.
  • Another freelancing job is book indexing. As in, you would write the index that is in the back of a non-fiction book. For more information about how to get started in this profession, visit the American Society for Indexing.
  • Become a virtual assistant. The International Virtual Assistants Association can give you some ideas on where to find work online in this field.  AssistU offers training on honing your VA skills.
  • Domain flipping. Purchase a domain through GoDaddy, flip it, and resell it.
  • Create websites for businesses who need them.
  • Design! This could be creating web logos or WordPress themes and selling them online.
  • Rewrite poorly written ads on online auction sites. Contact the seller and offer to fix it for a small commission.
  • Write product reviews. Ciao and Epinions.com will pay you to write reviews. The bloggers over at Bible Money Matters have posted their earnings with Ciao on their site.
  • Do Freebie Trading. This is still very new to me and warrants it’s own blog article. From what I understand, you make money by completing valid offers and referring people. For more information in the meantime, visit Christian Personal Finance.
  • At Crossloop you can get paid to help others with their computer problems by setting up a remote desktop.

The following sites are some additional resources to help you find valid online money making opportunities:

Disclaimer: One one last note – these are all opportunities.  I have not tried all of these to see if they work and they are merely ideas to help you out.  I will not be held responsible for any money made or lost with any of the above ideas.

Creative Ways to Make Money Part 1: Selling
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 2: Start a Service
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 4: Miscellaneous Jobs

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