Reward Yourself

As an at home parent it is sometimes hard to find ways to bring in money. I do a little on the side to pay for child support for my daughter but just don't have the time to really do a part-time job. To do a little extra I take part in a few different reward programs that will give me some extra cash to spend.

Disclaimer: In this post I will be including links that will give me credit or cash for referring. I would appreciate it if you want to try out a service or app that you would use my link or code but I fully understand if you don't want to. The point of this post is to highlight different options out there that I find fruitful. 

I try to stay away from the "do this and be entered into a contest" type of rewards simply because the odds just are not good enough to justify my time. I like to actually see some "points" that I know will eventually get me a gift card or some item I find useful.

Here are some sites and Apps that give me some real money to spend:

I really like Ibotta. For any parent that does the majority of the shopping this app really delivers. Before you plan your shopping list look on ibotta and see what deals they have and plan to buy the one they list. Once you buy them and get home just scan the items listed, do a couple small tasks that take no more than 20 seconds, scan the receipt with your phone camera and hit submit. So far after only casually (casually meaning only buy stuff I need) using it for about 6 months I have made $20. They have many great stores and they are always expanding. Recently they started offering different restaurants and other non grocery places. 

Receipt Hog

This is a new one for me. It works differently then ibotta but holds to the same idea of scanning receipts. I took the same receipt I scanned in for ibotta and it rewarded me with 15 coins. Eventually those coins will add up and I will have enough to get cash or an Amazon card. I will update this with more thought once I have used it more.

This one is my favorite. I know what you are saying: "Really? Bing...Nobody likes Bing." You would be right of course...Nothing beats Google but the rewards are worth it. I have used it for about 9 months and have made over $100 dollars in Tango Cards (Which can be traded into Amazon cards with no fee.) I really stand behind this and if you really don't like using Bing then just pop in for 10 minutes everyday and click around until you get all your points for the day. 

And here are the ones I use that will earn points based on stuff I already buy:

My Coke Rewards

I have been using My Coke Rewards for a long time. Pretty much since they first started them. When I first started I was delivering newspapers full time so when trash day came and people recycled their coke boxes with the codes still on them I profited. In the first year, I had earned a nice tote back I still use as a diaper bag, a $50 Adidas gift card, an Adidas workout shirt and a bunch of free 12 packs of coke. No adays we try not to drink much pop and I don't deliver a full paper route on trash days so the points trickle in here or there. I keep it up because I know eventually I will get something. I have to be careful because if I don't enter in a code every 90 days I will lose all my points.

Just like My Coke Rewards but featuring every product from Kellogg's. Go through your cabinet and fridge I am willing to bet you have a ton of Kellogg's products that have codes on them. These I have been saving up and have over 8000 points right now. I love this one because a couple times a year they do double points days. I will save up all my points and cash them in on that day. Of course, like Coke I have to enter one in every once in a while to keep the points.

This one of my favorites. Not only do you get codes from any Disney movie you buy but you also can get points from movie tickets and music CDs. I haven't cashed in anything yest but having been casually using it for a long time I have enough to get some decent BluRays. And if you have any movies sitting around with the codes unused then you might want to so this oon because until the end of March they have special deal: Input 3 codes and get a free BluRay combo set. We choose Cars.