Happy Holidays!

This year has gone by so incredibly quickly!  I can't believe that we're already coming up on Christmas... As a matter of fact, it snuck up on me so badly that I fell victim to price gouging on a gift for our son.  What was it?  A Lego Harry Potter construction set of course!  Seriously, tiny little pieces of plastic are a lot more expensive than I remember them being.
Luckily I had enough gift cards from SwagBucks and iRazoo to make the purchase of a $40 set at 100% mark up without any actual out of pocket expenses.  The price has actually gone down since we got it, probably because there's less chance of it arriving before the holidays.  I also grabbed the Big Blue Book of Beginner Books and some Melissa and Douglas sticker books to add to the pile of presents that are waiting to be wrapped.  On the plus side, after this year I can guarantee that I won't ever put off buying something for Christmas because I think it's overpriced again!
Most of the other things we got were a bargain though, so I guess that helps to make up for it as well.  How about you guys?  Did you get any super deals or duds this year?
On a work related note, I've been applying like crazy for all sorts of positions.  It's always hard to get back into the game after you've faded out.  I did take on a mystery shopping position for one client, but the time to pay ratio was a bit sub par.  I'm determined to find something that pays well on an hourly basis - I just keep carrying on chanting like the Little Engine that Could!

Back in the Saddle Again!

First of all, I want to apologize to all of my readers (and friends) who have been left hanging over these last couple of months.  What started off as an unannounced vacation at the request of my significant other quickly spiraled into an extended absence from the blog-o-sphere, but the good news is that I'm now back in the saddle and ready to start providing help and encouragement again!

Over the past several months I've been "taking it easy" on the monetary home front and have been dealing with family and health issues instead.  We suffered several family deaths this spring and summer, my grandmother is still struggling with various illnesses (but her spirits are high) and my parents separated in the blink of an eye when my mother picked up without warning and relocated.  To put it mildly, things have been rather interesting.

I'll be getting back into the swing of things again though, and Earning At Home will back in full swing in no time at all!

Things to look forward to:
A possible relocation of AtHomeEarning.com, we won't be changing our URL though!
Reviews of classic earning opportunities such as SwagBucks, iRazoo, SurveyHead and more!
Tips and bargains for the holidays...

SwagBucks Sale

From today (the 22nd) until Wednesday (the 24th) SwagBucks will have their $5 PayPal cards on sale at a lower price than usual.  They've dropped them down to 550 SBs currently which I think is about 200 cheaper than normal, but I'm not sure since I generally go for the $5 Amazon cards at 450 SBs.

If you're a PayPal buyer though, this is a pretty good deal!


Like this post?  Check out these!
* SwagBucks Birthday Celebration
* Thank You iRazoo and SwagBucks

Pay Day (3/13 - 3/19)

Here are my payments for last week, just some change from my down line at Cloud Crowd, so it's nothing too impressive.  I really need to get back to work on all my GPTs!

• Cloud Crowd: 21¢, $45.27 total since I started (Cloud Croud Proof of Payment)

I also cashed out $10 in Amazon cards from SwagBucks and $5 from iRazoo, I'll post proof when they arrive. 

I'm super annoyed because I've been saving points on SwagBucks for a while now in hopes of a sale, and two days after I finally broke down and bought a couple cards, they announced a sale for later this week!  Hopefully they'll put some good cards on sale, but not so many that I fully regret already redeeming 2 of my 5 monthly rewards hehe.

Other Pay Day Related Posts:

* Pay Day (3/6 - 3/12)

* Another Thumbs Up for iRazoo

Another Thumbs Up for iRazoo

It really looks like iRazoo is getting their act together.  On top of improving their referral system, it seems that they've made improvements to their gift card delivery times as well unless this last one was a fluke.

I've been with them since around October 2009 and have usually had to wait 3-5 weeks for Amazon gift cards to reach my inbox.  This week however I had a shocking surprise...  The gift card I ordered on 3/6 arrived today - less than a week later!  That's even faster than with SwagBucks, granted I don't know if I was just lucky or if they are actually going to be that quick all the time, but I'm looking forward to finding out!  (Proof of Payment)

Are any of you guys still using iRazoo?  If so let us know how long it takes your next gift card to get delivered!

You May Also Enjoy:
* Newest iRazoo Updates - Better Than Before?
* Pay Day (2/27 - 3/5)
* Thank You iRazoo and SwagBucks

SwagBucks Birthday Celebration

I logged into SwagBucks this morning and thought I'd hit the jackpot, until I looked closer.  I had 2700 SB's on my account and was actually afraid something might have gone wrong haha

What actually happened is that the SwagBucks Birthday Celebration began and ushered in a new point system... 

Right now I'm a little concerned about the fact that our SwagBucks have been multiplied by 10, and the cost of prizes has been multiplied by 10, but TSG says that search prizes will be worth "1-20" or more... I'm hoping the 1 is just a typo and is supposed to be 10 otherwise they're blinding us with big numbers just to shaft us in a way that we won't notice.


I'm crossing my fingers for some awesome stuff today though!

Pay Day (1/30 - 2/5)

Here are my most recent payments from various places:

• Cloud Crowd:  1¢ for $42.10 total (Proof of Payment)
• PineCone Research:  $3 for $30+ total (Proof of Payment)
• IMshopping:  $21.00 for $149.25 total (Proof of Payment)

I also had $15 worth of cards come in from SwagBucks!  The longer I'm with them, the more I dig them even though I'm not searching as much as I should be. (Proof of Payment)

So far for February I'm sitting at $198.01 which is pretty good.  I have one client that said they'll be away this month and another who said they may not need any services for a while, so I'm hoping to round up a few new clients to fill their gaps and keep my income steady.

January Earnings Breakdown

January is officially over and I for one, am quite glad.  Hopefully the rest of the year will be calmer than this past month has been.  I am happy to say that I did indeed meet my goal of earning $1000 last month.  While I was skeptical about my earnings, I managed to net $1043.78 after fees from my legitimate work from home jobs and adventures.  Here's the official breakdown...

Pay Day!

Are you ready for the weekend?  I most certainly am, unfortunately I don't know how much wind down time I'll have.  I'm hoping to go full throttle this weekend so that I can relax next weekend without my conscience nagging at me, but so far I'm off to a bad start since our dinner outing doubled in length after finding out our original destination had closed down!

Here are my most recent deposits from random websites:

• Cloud Crowd: 40¢ bringing me up to $42.06 total with them. (Proof of Payment)
  
• YouData: 11¢ bringing me up to $4.14 total with them. (Proof of Payment)
  
• Swagbucks: 3x $5 Amazon cards delivered which means I've had $45 worth of Amazon cards delivered, $20 worth of Red Envelope cards delivered and I have 2 more Amazon cards pending. (Proof of Payment)

Overall my cash earnings for the month are still not quite where they need to be.  I'm at only $656.57, but I have had a lot going on.  I still have 9 days left in the month which means most of my repeat projects will pay out again before the end of the month, so there's still a chance for me to hit the $1000 mark even with the difficulties I've had this month.

Pay Day!

I now name today Proof of Payment Friday... even though this post is actually coming through on Saturday since it's now 12:10 on the East coast.

Since Friday is the most commonly accepted pay day, I've decided to make it my official proof of payment posting day. This means that every Friday I will post all my payment proof updates from the week before. I figure it will be a lot neater and more convenient for you to see all the different proof of payment updates at once instead of splattered throughout the week.

It's been a while since I've done my Proof of Payment update so this is a bit of a long one:

• YouData: I've received two payments from them since my last update, one on 12/11 for 5¢ and a second today for 21¢. (Proof of Payment)

Updates

Things have been oh so hectic. Apparently on top of the holidays, my SO's family has half their birthdays in December and I had forgotten about... plus the firehouse does a lot of charity work during December which leaves me and my 4 year old bundle of energy stuck indoors by ourselves a lot more than usual.

I did want to say that I took advantage of the gift card sale that Swagbucks was having and bought 4 discounted Amazon cards (saved 20 SBs which is almost 1/2 of another card) bringing my total with them up to $30 with over 100 SB left over.

My scheduling goal is chugging a long like the little engine that could but hasn't quite made it over the hill yet. I have been using a small notepad to schedule my tasks from 6am-6pm and I'm managing to finish most things in their allotted time slots, but not everything. I have been royally slacking on remembering to do iRazoo, TrekPay, NeoBux etc though so I think I need to actually schedule them in so I won't forget.

Coming Soon: More Proof of Payment for IMShopping and Pinecone Research.

Swagbucks Sale

For those who have been watching the gift card sale from Swagbucks, they have finally put up the $5 Amazon Card at a discount. It's very minor and only a 5 SB discount, but it's still not terrible.

You can only grab two cards per day so I just snatched my two and am hoping that the timer resets at midnight so I can grab two more!

Thank you iRazoo and SwagBucks

I finally used my iRazoo and SwagBucks Amazon gift cards for a bit of Christmas shopping. I ended up with a total of $20 off my order... If I had all my iRazoo cards, my order would have been almost free haha

Little T will be pleased to see that Santa brought him two Lego Indiana Jones playsets, and I'm pleased that it only cost Santa $14.99 thanks to iRazoo and SwagBucks!

I only wish that I had gotten involved with these sites earlier instead of snubbing SwagBucks for so long!

November Digest and December Goals coming today or tomorrow at the latest!

iRazoo, SwagBucks and TrekPay

I finally got the gift code for my second $5 Amazon card from iRazoo. They're a bit slow, but considering the minimal amount of effort it takes, I can't really complain. I had requested it on November 1st and I got it on the 24th so it took just under 3 weeks.

I still have two more on the way and another one 1/2 way completed. Over all I've earned $20 worth of cards with them since I signed up 5 weeks ago, although I haven't received them all yet ;) (Proof of Payment)

For those of you have joined up with SwagBucks, remember to keep your eyes peeled for the next few weeks. Starting on Black Friday, different gift cards will be on sale each day so you might be able to snatch up a good one at a discount.

Since I've been saving I have only cashed out $10 worth of Amazon cards with them instead of the $30 I could have, but I have over 175 SwagBucks stocked up and I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't save them up for no reason haha

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TrekPay also paid out today, an all time low for me personally... I only got 49¢ BUT it brought me up to $5.57 from $5.08 so I can now cash out if I choose to! It took about 7 weeks to get there, so it's definitely a bit slow going, but every little bit helps. If that pace is steady I can cash out 7 times a year and make around $40 from them annually.

It won't pay my bills but it'll buy a video game every Christmas!

YouData, Trekpay and Wanelo...

...sent me payments this week. I received other payments as well, but those were all from private clients. I actually have a new goal for the month, to stop finding new clients! I'm addicted to looking for work though haha

I'm really enjoying it though. It feels good to not be unemployed anymore and if I had known it was this easy to work from home in this sort of manner before, I would have started sooner.

Anyways, on to the important stuff!

YouData sent me a payment for 16¢ which reminded me to check for new ads and I actually had some! This one definitely adds up slowly, but they pay promptly which is nice. (Proof of Payment)

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TrekPay updated on the 18th and I'm up to $5.08 with them so I should make the cash out next week! It was a really big leap from $3.74 to $5.08 so I'm not sure what happened, but I'm happy. That's $1.34 this week!

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And of course I got my $10 from Wanelo. I'm sad to see their paid reviews program go but I'm really crossing my fingers about the new Super!moms program. I think I've gotten a few nominations, and I've nominated people as well, so I'm crossing my fingers! (Proof of Payment)

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I also cashed out for my fourth iRazoo gift card yesterday which brings me up to $20 worth of gift cards from them... I could cash out for another $15 through SwagBucks as well, but I'm still crossing my fingers for some good sales through them so I'm stock piling my SwagBucks for now.

Proof of Payment Update

All right, I've had a lot of payments come through recently so bear with me while I get you all caught up!

Pinecone Research is a survey company that I haven't talked about here yet. They don't openly recruit, however p0ptart happened to have saved a registration link she'd gotten in her spam box from them! I'll include it on my side bar when I make my next update and add Pinecone, until then you can use the link here to sign up.

Either way, if you see their banner, sign up immediately! They pay $3 per survey or product review that they give you. The money is sent automatically upon completion by check. I did my first survey on 11/5 and received my check on 11/9! I'm expecting my second $3 any day now. (Proof of Payment)

Special thanks to p0ptart for the registration link!

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I also finally received my SurveyHead payment, $25.50 to my Pay Pal account. I had requested it on 10/21 and I got the payment on 11/11 so it took about 3 weeks. It definitely feels like it was a lot longer though lol As it happens, by the time it arrived I was practically ready to cash out again! I'm actually going to request another $20 cash out right now, which will leave me with $8.20 towards my next request. (Proof of Payment)

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I got my weekly $10 from Wanelo on Friday, right on time as usual. I'm up to $125 with them now I think. This is really a great program, if you haven't gotten involved yet you should do it. You can earn $40 a month off of reviews, and there are bonuses available as well. (Proof of Payment)

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I also got paid for the interactive survey I did with Greenfield Online on 10/20. I requested the pay out on Friday and got it today! I had also done a couple of $1 surveys so the total payout was $32 taking me up to $62 total with them. (Proof of Payment)

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My second gift card came in from SwagBucks today as well so now I've received $10 in Amazon cards from them total. I also have enough SwagBucks saved up to have requested two more, but I'm holding off in case a good card goes on sale during the end of the year sales. Even if they don't, no harm done, I'll just buy a bunch of them at once haha (Proof of Payment)

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Last but not least, is a peek at my eLance account. Naturally right after I finished editing the picture, I received an additional payment but since I'm stretched for time I didn't redo it. My total there is about $10 higher now than what it actually shows. (Proof of Payment)

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I've also had some deposits to my PayPal from my private clients this month on top of all that. Overall I'm really thrilled right now. If I can do it, you can do it too! Get out there and start earning!

A few quick notes

I completely forgot to post on TrekPay last week! The conversion took place on Wednesday and I think around 250ish credits became 69¢ (bringing me to a total of $3.74) for me which is an all time low in terms of the weekly amount. I think I might have missed a day of credit collecting though. I also haven't been checking throughout the day as often as I was before for extra chances at credits.

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My first iRazoo $5 Amazon card arrived in my email this morning... just in time for me to request my third one haha (Proof of Payment)

I had ordered the card on the 10/24 which means it took about 17 days to arrive. I still don't understand why it's not instant since it's a gift card but at least now I know about how long they should take.

At this point I've earned $15 with iRazoo in less than a month.

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I also have enough points to request my 3rd $5 Amazon card from SwagBucks (which means they're just about neck and neck with iRazoo) however I'm holding off because of the supposed blowout sale that's going to be going on.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to find a good bargain on Amazon cards or Southwest Airlines cards (of course that would have to be a significant price cut for me to afford those). Only time will tell, either way it can't hurt to save them up for a few extra weeks.

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Wanelo also paid me my $10 right on time last Friday as usual. (Proof of Payment)

Please note, that you have to complete your reviews and send them an email with your profile linked by midnight on Thursday to get paid on Friday as of last week. All reviews have to been done in a full increment of 10 during that week to get paid as well.

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IMShopping paid me on Tuesday as well! I got a deposit of $34.85 in my paypal account (Proof of Payment) from them yesterday. Monday is usually the pay day, but the woman in charge of their payroll had a bit of an emergency so it was a little late.

I honestly don't think that the amount is correct though because they had a lot of issues with the new changes they did to the system, but I'm not going to argue it because I'm really impressed with this little egg. I had already mentioned it once in passing when we were starting to notice the issues from the site update, so I'll wait and see if things go smoothly this week or not. It would only have been a couple dollars more so I'm not stressing over it.

I've been super busy so I haven't been able to pay as much attention to IMShopping as I'd like, but I'm going to try and put more time into them this week and at least answer a handful of questions a day.

A quick note for Swaggers

If you don't read the SwagBucks blog, you may want to hop by their blog and check it out. To paraphrase the latest entry, starting on Nov. 27th (black Friday) through the end of the year they'll be picking random gift cards and slashing the prices.

It sounds like it will be one card, per day, and some cards may be discounted on multiple days and to different degrees. You can get a max of 5 at the discounted rate, I don't know if that's total, per type or per day.

If you're like me and do gift card prizes only, then I'd suggest holding onto those bucks until you see your favorite go on sale. I'm due for a cash out today, or tomorrow at the latest so I'm really glad I caught that post when I did!

See their blog post here.

((Edited - it's only been a few hours and they've already adjusted the max down to 2 instead of 5, still a nice deal, but less motivating to actually save up.))

PeopleString and SwagBucks (again)

Just a quick note to mention two things:

1. I got my first real mail from PeopleString! A 50¢ reward for receiving a postcard in the mail, viewing a website, and then typing in a code from the card. I can't wait for the next piece hehe

2. SwagBucks has a new page up offering SwagBucks in exchange for participation in different offers. Typically I'm not a fan of offers but HOLY COW they make it look so worth it that I'm really considering doing it.

Example: FreeCreditReport.com offer
CashCrate - $5.00
MyPoints - 250 points (which is roughly $1.69 worth of points to put towards an amazon card)

CreditReport.com offer
SwagBucks - 115 SB (which is enough for two $5 gift cards, and leaves you with 25 SB left over!)

Granted it's two different sites, it still seems clear that SB is paying heavily. They even have some that pay you just to download or sign up to play games.

If you do offers though, remember to cancel them before they charge to you! That is the key. It means you'd have to keep a super careful eye on the 7 day free trials and call up as soon as you get credit on SwagBucks to cancel. I'd also call again the next day just to be sure everything was properly canceled.

Swagbucks

Woohoo! I just requested my second $5 Amazon card from SwagBucks.

So far I've been using them since 9/17 and am up to $10 worth of cards with them once this one arrives. Not bad at all! If you haven't checked them out yet, you really should - especially if you've found that you enjoy iRazoo. The reverse applies as well haha

The two of them combined will double (or nearly double) your Amazon card earnings which can be handy for gifting occasions.