Best Cash Back Shopping Sites

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Cash Back shopping sites such as Ebates, Big Crumbs, and Mr. Rebates get paid for sending customers to online merchants. They then share some of that cash with the customers who went through their shopping site to make the purchase. It is a simple process. You log in to the cash back site of your choice and then click through to the online merchant where you want to make a purchase. After you check out you will get a percentage of the purchase price back in your cash back account. These percentages are usually 1% – 7% but they can be even higher.

The cash back shopping sites I prefer are:

Ebates –   They currently offer a $5 sign up bonus and have one of the largest selection of merchants to choose from.

Mr. Rebates – They also offer a $5 sign up bonus.  They have the best cash back percentage for a lot of merchants.

Big Crumbs –  They do not currently offer a bonus but they do have a large amount of merchants to choose from and competitive cash back percentages.  You can also check out the BigCrumbs Deals page for great deals that are added on top of the cash back.

Once you sign up for any of these cash back shopping sites you can earn money for referring new users just like I do. Not only can you save a little money on your online purchases you can make a little money as well.

How to Make Money from Blogging, Medical Trials, and Mystery Shopping

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People often ask me how to make money doing one of these things after I post my monthly income report. I have written posts before about all of these things before although I suppose none of the posts would qualify as a definitive guide. Since there are probably more readers out there who are interested in making money from one or more of these ways I am sharing some resources for more information.

For medical trials try the websites JALR.org (Just Another Lab Rat) and GPGP.net (Guinea Pig, Get Paid). These should provide you with all the information you need to get started and of course you can search this site for my previous posts on the subject as well.

For mystery shopping check out Volition.com. They have a ton of information about mystery shopping although it isn’t always easy to find exactly the information you need. You might also check out MyFrugalMiser.com. This isn’t a “how-to” site but he is successfully making a living as a mystery shopper and you can pick up a few tips.

For blogging there are a ton of resources. I really like the “How to Make Money with a Blog” post at Christian Personal Finance. It provides a nice overview of what is involved in making money with a blog and provides additional resources as well.

If anybody has more resources covering the money making areas above please feel free to share them in the comments.

The Simple Way to Clip Coupons

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Many people do not want to mess with clipping coupons because they don’t believe the savings is worth the time it takes to cut out and organize the coupons. I tend to agree with them but I still use coupons because I use them in a way that takes little time to clip and organize yet provides big savings.

The resource I use to make clipping coupons easy is MoneySavingMom.com. If you go to her site you will see a widget with a list of stores in the right sidebar. If you click on your local store it will go to a post matching up coupons to the current sale at that particular grocery chain. To make things even easier the post will usually include links to printable coupons and e-coupons. This makes using coupons easy because you only “clip” the coupons that match a sale and you know you will use. I don’t usually bother with cutting coupons out of the paper anymore because it is easier to just use the printable and e-coupons.

There are several sites on the web where you can get printable coupons. I try to get mine through my MyPoints account since I receive a few points for using the coupons I print from there in addition to getting the coupon savings. A few sites to get coupons online are Coupons.com, Redplum.com, and Smartsource.com. You can get e-coupons at Cellfire.com and possibly at your local grocer’s website as well.

If you have a local grocery store that doubles coupons then you can get some really great deals. Last week I was able to get cereal, Chex Mix, and Hamburger Helper for 49 cents each. It is true that most coupons are for processed foods but since I would eat these foods whether I was using coupons or not it doesn’t have any effect on my diet. And these foods are probably still better than the fast food I eat most days. You can still use coupons to eat healthy you just won’t be using nearly as many coupons.

If you are interested in using coupons I suggest you check out the MoneySavingMom website and see how the deals work for you.

Does Checking Take from the Poor and Give to the Rich?

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A recent study found that credit cards transfer wealth from the poor to the rich. J.D. of Get Rich Slowly stated that it would not change the way he uses credit cards. Adam at ManvsDebt used the study to support the reasons he does not use credit cards.

The obvious alternative to credit cards is to use a debit card tied to a checking account. These checking accounts represent a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich as well.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston includes this quote on their download page. “Because credit card spending and rewards are positively correlated with household income, the payment instrument transfer also induces a regressive transfer from low-income to high-income households in general.” Banks cover the cost of providing a checking account mainly from overdraft fees and debit card interchange fees. A 2006 FDIC study found a correlation between household income and overdraft fees, those who live in lower income areas were much more likely to have incurred overdraft charges. Following the reasoning in the credit card study the conclusion is that checking represents a transfer wealth from low-income to high-income households.

Adam concludes that “consumers who use cash or other forms of payment pay marked up prices to account for the transaction fees generated by those which use credit cards.” Since debit cards also charge interchange fees it is fair to conclude that they account for some percentage of the marked up prices. Debit card users benefit because the fees cover the cost of providing them with a checking account and sometimes debit cards provide rewards as well. It is only the cash customer paying the marked up prices who doesn’t receive any benefit. Who is most likely to be paying cash?

Adam has chosen to opt out of the credit card industry because he doesn’t agree with credit card industry practices. Debit cards are a lesser evil but they do share many of the practices of the credit card industry.

Is the answer to just use cash with no checking account? Those who don’t have checking accounts often have to buy money orders and pay a hefty fee to cash their paychecks. I haven’t done the research but it is easy to see how that would also represent a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Just using cash doesn’t seem to be a viable alternative.

I am going to just continue using my credit cards, debit cards, and checking accounts as usual. Although I don’t agree with some of the practices of these companies by being financially responsible one can avoid much of the cost.

What would be your solution?

July Investment Income – $90.62

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My July investment income rose slightly to $90.62 from $89.47 the month before.  This was due to a slight rise in the value of my stocks.  I did not make any additional investments in July.  Part of the reason for the decline in my investment income from its highs earlier this year is that I am now counting only $1000 cash as part of my investment portfolio.  I was counting $1500 earlier but after skipping a month of calculating my investment income I forgot how much cash I was counting as part of my investment portfolio.  I have decided to keep the figure at $1000 since my amount of cash available has seriously decreased.

Unless the market treats me badly in August I should have an increase in my investment income because I will finally resume adding to my portfolio.  This will probably end again in September though because I have a big expense that month.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.