Surveys, Mystery Shopping and Free Stuff

First, I must apologize for not writing for a few days...I've had an awful cold, drooled into me by my younger son. I've had no sleep for a few days (up all night coughing) and am just now becoming human again.

Now that that's out of the way...ok, I know I'm not blogging about a "product" today. But, being a stay-at-home Mom with no real income of my own...I thought I would pass along things I know about that can help you get a little of your own spending money or, at the least, some free stuff.

First is My Points. If you've never heard of My Points before then listen up. My Points, www.mypoints.com, is a site where you sign up and you earn points towards all kinds of gift cards. You can get emails sent to you with offers (you are not obligated to fulfill any offers, you get 5 points for just clicking on the link and more points if you do the offer), you can shop online via their links (you must shop through their links to get points) and you get points for each $ spent and there are other kinds of things you can do for points. Usually the minimum amount of points you need to get something (a $10 gift card) is around 1400 points. Some of the places you can get gift cards for include: Barnes & Noble, Bloomingdales, Bath & Body Works, Panera Bread, GAP, JC Penney and much more. If you'd like me to send you a referral link, just email me with your name and email address and I'll get that done for you.

Surveys
Gosh there are many many many survey companies out there. I think I've signed up for all of them, but there are some that send out surveys all the time and some that I've gotten 1 in the past year. Each survey company and in fact each survey can give you a different reward. Some will pay you CASH for a survey you complete (some do require a minimum balance in your account before you can request your cash). Some surveys offer product tests in which they send you a new product, you use it and then fill out a survey they send you. Some companies have online discussion groups and if you qualify for them, they are where the big payouts are. Some surveys earn you points that you can redeem for cash, sweepstakes, prizes etc. Since there are more survey companies than I feel like typing addresses for...I'm going to refer you to another site/blog that I love: FreeLanceByU. Here's the address that will take you straight to the survey page:
http://www.freelancebyu.com/survey.htm
On this page you will find links to every survey company out there. It's very extensive so take your time. On average I get about maybe 10-40 surveys a week. Sometimes it's for points, sometimes for $$. I don't do them all, some subjects like financial surveys I just don't do. Most of them I do though. I also get about 5 product tests a month which is cool.

Mystery Shopping
Just like with the survey companies, there are alot of mystery shopping companies. Some are picky and require you to have certification. Others just want to get the shops done and don't care if you have certification. I haven't done one in awhile, people seem to beat me to the punch. These are fun to do, especially if it's a restaurant, that way you can usually feed the family and get reimbursed. Some companies pay you a set fee and others will pay you just a reimbursement for your meal or purchase. You have to be very detailed in your reports and you need to have a good memory. Again, I will send you to my friend Angie at FreeLanceByu, because she is the goddess who has all these companies in one place. Here's the link to the mystery shop page:
http://www.freelancebyu.com/mysteryshop.htm

So take a look around. As a stay-at-home Mom, every little bit I can bring in helps. I feel like I'm contributing to my own purchases this way and I don't feel like I'm spending all my husband's earnings on stuff for myself. Feel free to email me with any questions, I'll try to answer them if I can.