sahm Archives - Musings Of A Multi-Tasking Mom

30 Ways To Make Money From Home

December 20, 2019 | Leave a Comment

The truth is there is not just ONE way to work from home. In fact, you can find lots of different options that work for all different people. Sometimes you do have to try more than one thing, and that’s ok!!! Many people don’t find their dream job the first time, but if they do, that is GREAT!!!

CUSTOMER SERVICE JOBS

This is one of the most popular ways to work from home. You work set hours, make a set income, and need a quiet office space as you are on the phone helping customers. This option is perfect for people who don’t have kids running around the hours but want to stay home and make an income that way. My honest opinion, this is NOT a good option for those with little kids unless you have someone else watching them. These companies require you not to have background noise so if you need to be watching your kids, I wouldn’t recommend this option.

Here are a few companies that hire people to do customer service from home:

Enterprise Rent A Car

DATA ENTRY JOBS

Data entry is the dream job everyone wants, but lets be honest it is VERY hard to find. One reason is people need to have a lot of experience for this or they need to have a certification/degree. If you go to school for it, often times the school has programs to help you find a job after. Make sure to utilize those!!! If you don’t have a degree, but do have experience, look into sites like www.odesk.com and www.elance.com Now keep in mind those sites can have jobs that are NOT legit and ARE scams so you always want to be very careful. Another problem with this type of job is the pay can be very very low and not consistent. Research a company online to learn more about it and the pay! Here are some others to check out.

VIRTUAL CHAT BASED JOBS

A chat based job is the perfect thing for so many people, especially Mom’s!!! They are few and far between so make sure to apply when you see an opening! Here are a few sites to look into.

Needle

Capital Typing

Weebly

PaperlessPipeline.com

Sedgwick CMS

G5Live

OutPlex

SURVEY SITES

Survey Savvy

Paid View Point

Swagbucks

Ibotta (discounts and cash back on groceries at your choice of stores!)

Inbox Dollars

Fusion Cash

<<<<OTHER OPTIONS >>>>

Mystery Shopper:

MSPA North America

World Alliance for Retail Excellence

ONLINE JUROR

Survey’s That Pay

October 14, 2017 | 3 Comments

Everyone asks if you can really get paid to take survey’s and the answer is YES!!! Most time’s the way it works is you sign up, provide information about yourself and your life, and the provider will send you survey’s that you qualify for. Now keep in mind, you often get paid based on the length of the survey. Most times it’s $1 for every 10 minutes. Its not a lot of money, but if you really need extra cash, you can do this vs playing candy crush.

Also, you have to wait for them to send you survey’s so its great to sign up with a few different providers, you just want to make sure they are legit ones!!

My favorites are: ((click the survey name to sign up))

Phone Apps That Pay:

Dosh (cell phone app for discounts and cash back on purchases. Link your credit card to get cash back right away)

Ibotta (discounts and cash back on groceries at your choice of stores!)

One of the great things is you can usually do these from your phone, and you can also share them with other people too!!!

Another thing I love is Survey Savvy usually has an opportunity for you to participate in a study program. For instance right now, by letting them monitor your shopping habits for 6 weeks, you can earn $150. That’s a nice chunk of change just for letting them watch what you buy (as long as you dont buy illegal things online lol).

Now Swagbucks is a tad different in that you get paid for doing surveys, taking polls, and other tasks. Also for shopping!!

Go sign up for these, especially Survey Savvy right now so you can participate in their Holiday Bonus!!!

Graham Cookies

March 4, 2015 | Leave a Comment

As a parent, it is always a struggle between finding foods my kids will eat, and my desire to have them eat healthy foods. Lately as I have noticed that effects sugar have on my 4 year old, I’ve been working hard to find healthy foods that I can make. And that he will still enjoy haha. One recipe I recently found that everyone loved, is home made graham crackers! These are very easy to do and delicious!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup whole wheat flour or flour of choice
1½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup butter, cold
¼ cup honey
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a blender combine the ingredients.
Next put in the chilled butter.
Scoop the mixture onto a piece of wax paper, with another sheet onto and roll out with a rolling pin or cup
Roll dough out and use cookie cutters to make shapes or a cup just for circles.
Place cookies on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

To Freeze, simply cut the cookies into shapes and then place them onto a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then you can place them in a plastic bag and you can freeze them for up to 3 months. When you are ready to bake them, just cook them with an additional 1-2 minutes of bake time added on and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.

Live Like A Girl

February 4, 2015 | 1 Comment

I am a very structured person. I like lists, I like plans, and I like order. And I have 3 kids under the ages of 5. Having kids has been a great lesson to me on living in the moment, knowing whats important, and getting my priorities in order. My middle child, Adalyn, teaches me that daily!!! At 3 years old she dances to the beat of her own drum, ignores rules and order, is her own boss and lives like a fierce and fabulous girl.

If you need a giggle, here is a normal week with Adalyn.

Going into Lowes to use the restroom, she announces “I’m wearing boy underwear today!! I stole it from Will!”

De-cluttering my closet, she pulls everything from the trash pile “Mom, can I keep this?? Yes or No.” “No, put it back in the trash” “Mom, Yes or No. But NOT No!”

“Mom, while you put Liam to sleep I colored my belly. Its pink!!”

On what to have for breakfast: “CHOCOLATE!!! Lots of CHOCOLATE!”

“For Halloween, Im going to be Astrid!!! Not a princess! A dragon rider!” (From How To Train Your Dragon)

On why she was closing all the doors in the house ” BECAUSE I WANT TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Her Current Favorite Songs: Timber, Shake It Off, and Let It Go

Her Favorite Activity: Taking care of her “one baby Liam”

On what she wants to be when she grows up “I want to wear Lipstick and give shots!”

Favorite Superhero: Pink Ones

Favorite Food: Ice Cream and Broccoli

Spending time with Adalyn reminds me that being yourself is the best person to be. She is the middle child with an older and younger brother, and boy is she FIERCE! Sure she is only 3, but she sings even when she doesn’t know the words, she dances to her own beat, she dresses like she is a superhero princess, she tries to fly and doesn’t cry when she fall, and she says whatever is on her mind. My wish for her is that she never changes and always embraces every part of herself that makes her different from others. And that she always remembers that being a girl means she is strong, fierce, beautiful, and capable of anything she wants! #likeagirl

How I Save Over $1000 Per Month

December 19, 2014 | 47 Comments

For many people, money is tight right now and especially for those families on a single income. When our family grew and we needed a new car, I found that we were living paycheck to paycheck with not a single dime extra. My husband couldn’t work more as he was a full time student, and with 3 young kids it would not have made us any more money for me to return to work as the childcare for 3 kids is crazy expensive. So I began to look at how we could save money each month. You actually have lots of ways to do this and it can add up to quite a bit of money over time! First and foremost, make a budget and stick with it!!!

Groceries:

This was where most our money went each month. We were spending about $250 per week for a family of 5, plus eating out at least once a week. My goal was to reduce this down to about $400 per month giving us a savings of $600. Here is how I did it.

*I planned out our meals for the entire month, wrote them all down on a notepad on the fridge

*I made sure that we had a veggie night at least twice a week (meat is expensive, but you can get protein in the form of beans)

*We had a leftovers night once a week to clear out our fridge and pantry

*I switched up where I was grocery shopping. We have an Aldi’s about 25 minutes away and I go there twice a month. I save a lot this way!

*Freezing foods! I buy cheese and meat in bulk and freeze it.

*I stick with canned and frozen veggies

*I always buy the generic brands of foods

*I cook from scratch things like spaghetti sauce, chicken broth, biscuits, muffins etc

*For my kids, I make a huge batch of muffins for them for breakfast and keep them in the freezer

*Fruits are either bags of apples and bananas or canned fruit

*For seafood, we go with frozen swai. Very cheap and delicious.

*Make a list for the grocery store and stick with it. If its not a necessity, don’t buy it

*Use cash!!! We take our grocery money out of savings each month and put it in an envelope. When that money is gone, we are out of luck. This helps us stick to our budget!!!

Check out my Healthy Eating on A Budget Plan to get meal plans, recipes, grocery lists, shopping tips, saving suggestions and more!!!

Utilities

WATER

Where we live the price of water is VERY expensive. It is 5 times the price of at our previous home so this took some getting use to. Here are tips to cut your water bill

*Take showers not baths

*Only run the dishwasher when it is full

*Do not hand wash dishes, that uses more water

*Never leave the water running

*Make sure your washer is full when you do a load of clothes.

ELECTRIC

Electricity is where many people spend a lot of money. Here are some ways to reduce your bill.

*Unplug your appliances such as computers, TV’s, coffee pots, toasters, etc when they are not be used

*Only keep the lights on in the room you are in.

* Add weather stripping to any doors that aren’t sealed tight.

*Use natural light from the windows whenever possible

*Turn your air off during the summer and open the doors and windows

*If you have a fireplace, use that as often as possible during the winter

*Skip all the Christmas lights during winter and go with non electricity using decorations. Use battery powered lights in your windows for a classic Christmas look without the high bill

*Use curtains and blinds. Keep them shut to help cool the room down, and keep them open to allow the sun to warm it up.

*Use your washing machine on the cold mode as it uses less energy

*Dry your clothes, towels, blankets on a clothes line during the summer instead of using the dryer

*For small meals, use your toaster oven or microwave instead of your oven as this will consume about half the power

Cable/Internet/Phones

Cut the cord on cable! You can spend less than $20 a month by subscribing to Hulu and Netflix. Netflix provides ton of shows for kids plus full seasons of shows for adults. If you want to watch current shows, Hulu posts them the day after they air on TV. Great way to still watch your favorite shows but save money each month.

Check out different internet providers in your area for the BEST deal. Sometimes switching a provider can save you a lot of money. If you don’t use internet daily, consider cutting that all together and instead visiting the library or an internet café when you need to.

Phone bills are very expensive, especially if you don’t look at the fine print. Many providers charge you insurance and other fees you did not agree too. Make sure you are using all your minutes, if not reduce your plan or consider switching to a provider with a cheaper plan. Check into cutting your data usage too as that can save a lot. Many plans charge one price for the entire month.

Clothes/Toys

Consider shopping for your kids clothes twice a year at Consignment Sales. Most large cities have them and you can also sell your used clothing and toys there too. Another option is online yard sales. I use this for selling my kids clothes and usually will put one size in a giant trash bag and sell the bag for $20. That gets someone an entire season of clothing for $20!!! We usually buy all our clothes new from Kohls, with two boys we pass them down. I always look online for a 30% off and free shipping coupon. Using those allows me to spend about $100 for all 3 kids each season.

For toys make sure to check out local consignment shops. We have quite a few in our town and most the toys in there are still in boxes totally unused! It’s a great deal and then we just donate the toys after they are done with them or re-sell them

Cars

The truth of the matter is, cars cost a lot of money! You have gas, insurance, plus upkeep on your vehicles!

*For insurance, make sure to check out all the different providers for the best deal. Pay your payments twice a year vs monthly to save money.

*Don’t buy a new car! Always go with used and instead of trading yours in, sell it outright as that gets you more money. If you can get by with using one car, downgrade! That will save you a lot of money each month.

*Gas is expensive, especially if you drive a larger vehicle and drive often. Consider the costs when you are going places and carpool whenever possible.