7 Best Online Survey and Research Sites to Make Money Fast

While there are many ways to get ahead in life, few are as beneficial as earning more money.

By increasing your income over time, you can boost your cash savings rate, save more money for retirement, and even afford a splurge once in a while.

And if having more money makes you feel more secure, you’ll probably sleep better at night, too.

Related:

• 100 Ways to Make $100 Fast

Of course, it’s not always easy to increase your income. Your employer might hate giving raises, for example, or maybe overtime at work has become scarce. If that’s the case, you might need to pick up a part-time job, start a side hustle from home, or look for unorthodox ways to earn money in your spare time.

7 Best Online Survey and Research Sites to Make Money Fast

If you’re short on time, one of the best ways to rack up some free and easy money is with online survey sites. While the payouts can vary, these sites let you earn money just for answering questions, browsing the internet, and more.

Plus, unlike a part-time job with strict hours and the standard commute, you can complete surveys during your actual free time – at night when the kids are in bed, early mornings before work, or while you’re watching TV.

Ready to get started?

Here are a few of the top online survey sites that will pay you to answer questions in your spare time:

• American Consumer Opinion
• Harris Poll Online
• Inbox Dollars
• Pinecone Research
• Pro Opinion
• Swagbucks
• Wonder

American Consumer Opinion

While it might be hard to believe at first, American Consumer Opinion will pay you real, actual money to share your opinions and complete online surveys. Once you join their online opinion panel, you’ll be asked to offer opinions on new products you have tried, test out new advertising campaigns, and tell companies what you think of their marketing techniques and slogans.

Payouts from American Consumer Opinion vary, but your payout will come in the form of “points” you can redeem for cash. You can also get your cash through PayPal if you want, and redemptions start at 1,000 points or $10.

Get started with American Consumer Opinion by clicking this link!

Harris Poll Online

Like American Consumer Opinion, Harris Poll Online offers cash incentives to people who are willing to log in regularly and complete online surveys and questionnaires. Once you join, you’ll begin earning rewards for each survey you take. Once you earn enough reward “points”, you can turn them in for purchases made on websites like Amazon, iTunes, Home Depot and Walmart. Conversely, you can also turn in your points for movies, books, and home goods ordered straight from the Harris Poll website. Plus, you’ll be entered into a $10,000 sweepstakes each time you complete a survey.

While exact payouts per survey aren’t advertised and can vary quite a bit anyway, Harris Poll Online is free to join and the rewards can be lucrative if you use the website often enough.

Click here to learn more about joining Harris Poll Online and how you can earn cash in your spare time.

Inbox Dollars

With Inbox Dollars, you’ll earn cash for an array of activities. In addition to earning rewards for completing surveys and questionnaires, you can also get paid to surf the internet, play games, print grocery coupons, and shop online. Best of all, signing up is absolutely free!

If you use the site regularly, you can usually earn up to $20 or $30 per month for your various activities. Plus, you’ll get a $5.00 credit just for signing up!

Pinecone Research

Pinecone Research works a lot like other paid survey sites. Once you sign up, you’ll earn points for each survey you complete. As an added bonus, the responses you give during surveys will help you learn about new products before they hit the market and influence their respective marketing campaigns. And once you start racking up the points, you can redeem them for cash or prizes.

While you have plenty of options when it comes to redeeming your points, Pinecone research is also one of the few online survey sites that will actually send you a check in the mail instead of making you redeem for gift cards or merchandise.

If you’re interesting in figuring out how much you can earn, sign up for Pinecone Research here.

Pro Opinion

With Pro Opinion, you’ll get paid to answer questions in your field of expertise. In addition, you’ll provide valuable research that is used to create expert responses and articles on the Pro Opinion website.

After you sign up, you’ll receive surveys on various topics and products via email. Once you complete these surveys and build up a stash of “points,” you can redeem them for cash via PayPal, purchases made through Amazon.com, or gift cards to various retailers. As an alternate suggestion, you can even redeem your rewards as a donation to the Red Cross.

To get started, you’ll need to offer quite a few personal details including your gender, home address, birth date, employment status, education level, and household income. After that, however, you’ll be matched with surveys that line up with your individual strengths and existing wealth of knowledge.

Interested in learning more? Sign up with Pro Opinion here.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks was one of the first paid survey sites to appear on the internet, but it has grown to offer more options and more fun ways to earn money with each passing year. With Swagbucks, you’ll earn points for shopping online, watching videos, searching the web, and answering surveys.

When it comes to redeeming your points, a wide range of gift cards are some of the best options. If you don’t want gift cards, on the other hand, you can also redeem your points for PayPal cash.

Signing up for Swagbucks is easy and, best of all, it’s free! If you want to see all the different ways to earn money with Swagbucks, click here to get started.

Wonder

Unlike the other paid survey sites on this list, Wonder will actually hire you to conduct independent research on a wide range of topics. In that sense, Wonder offers much more of a “part-time job” than a side hustle you can complete in your spare time.

If you meet their criteria and get hired, you’ll conduct expert research on anything from historical events to government laws and regulations. In turn, that research is used by professionals who pay to use this service.

Earnings vary highly depending on your level of skill and the amount of time you spend finding the crucial details your clients need. Still, this is a great way to earn some money online and from the comfort of your own home.

You can read more about Wonder and where it works here.

How to Get the Most Out of the Best Online Survey Sites

The allure of “free money” can be hard to walk away from, especially if you can earn that money just by clicking around on the internet a few times per day. Still, there are plenty of ways to maximize the amount of money, merchandise, and gift cards you earn over time. Here are some tips that can help:

Sign up for every legitimate online survey site you can find.

While you can earn money from any of these sites fairly easily, the amount of money you can earn from each might be limited. If you have plenty of time on your hands, it can pay to sign up for several online survey sites and participate in each.

The more surveys and online tasks you complete, the more money you’ll earn over time. You may even find that a few sites are your favorites this way, or that one site ends up helping you net more cash than the others. Regardless, you won’t really know how each works until you try them out.

Watch out for scams.

While every online survey site mentioned in this post is absolutely legitimate, there are some “copy cat” websites and even fraudulent websites out there.

If a website is making wild claims about free money or asks for more personal information than you feel comfortable giving, that’s a good indicator that they are up to no good. Make sure to read reviews and follow up with research to make sure a website is legitimate before you begin using them. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Set aside time to complete surveys each day.

If you feel like you don’t have time to complete surveys, you’re not alone. Most of us live busy lives, and it can be difficult to keep up, let alone take on a new side hustle.

Still, if you watch television each day, then you have plenty of time to complete surveys online. Simply turn on your favorite show and complete survey questions during the commercial breaks. If you like some quiet time at night, that’s also a great time to earn extra money through online search or complete a few online surveys while you relax.

The Bottom Line

The best online survey sites will reward you for everything from searching the internet to watching targeted videos, opening emails, completing surveys, and giving your honest opinions on products and services.

But to get your hands on that free and easy money, you have to sign up first!

Have you ever earned money through an online survey site? Why or why not?

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Want to Get Paid to Be on Pinterest All Day? Work for The Penny Hoarder

Be honest: How much time did you spend on Pinterest last night?

And the night before? And, let’s be honest, all weekend?

If you’ve ever wished you could leverage your addiction into a job or dream of working in a slick, savvy startup environment with a laundry list of perks, listen up.

The Penny Hoarder understands your Pinterest addiction.

And actually, as it turns out, we need you.

The Penny Hoarder is Hiring a Pinterest-Addicted Graphic Designer

Our growing team is seeking a new addition: a talented graphic designer who knows the ins and outs of social media to help us create fun, helpful visual content and bring it to our readers.

Our ideal candidate has two to three years of graphic design experience with at least some focus on social media, and is excited to bring their skills to a dynamic team working in a fast-paced newsroom environment.

Basically, you should be a total design geek whose love of creating beautiful things is matched only by your love of sharing them online — and watching them knock it out of the park, performance-wise.

And another thing? You don’t necessarily need a degree. If you’re self-taught but you provide an impressive and relevant sample, we’d love to consider you.

So if you’ve got the chops, trust me: This is your dream gig.

You’ll get to hang out on Pinterest all day, 100% guilt-free.

Even better? You’ll make a real difference in our site’s performance and reach.

Pinterest is one of our biggest traffic drivers, followed closely by Snapchat and Instagram, which you’ll also work on.

And as far as compensation goes, you won’t be disappointed.

Pay is competitive and experience-based, and the benefits are first-rate. We get three weeks’ paid vacation, a corporate-matched 401(k), and full health care coverage with surprisingly awesome customer service.

You’ll be based in a St. Petersburg, Florida, office so gorgeous and well-stocked with snacks, coffee and beer that most of us can’t wait to come in on Monday. But many of our employees work from home, or somewhere more exciting, one day a week.

And the list goes on.

You’ll be eligible for a company laptop, a quarterly company-wide performance-based bonus (we’ve made the threshold every quarter so far), and a $500 referral bonus if you suggest a successful job candidate.

(Psst — put my name as your referee when you apply!)

You’ll also get a $200 annual learning stipend, so you can get even better at your already-rockstar-status skills.

Furthermore, I can (obviously) vouch for our company culture.

We’re an eclectic and enthusiastic group of smart, motivated people working in a beautiful office whose executives honestly care about our happiness — and go to great lengths to secure it.

Can’t wait to start? Here’s how to apply.

Ready for the Best Social Media Job Ever?

You can submit an application — and check out the full details of the role — by clicking here.

And don’t forget to check out our snazzy careers page to learn even more about why it’s amazing to work at The Penny Hoarder. Plus, you’ll get a sneak peek of our so-swank-I-can’t-believe-I-work-here office.

You’ll be asked to furnish your resume, and to create a Pinterest-optimized graphic to accompany this post.

It won’t be published — we just want to see what you can do. Think big and get creative! “Ask for forgiveness, not permission” is literally in our company handbook, so feel free to be brave.

What are you waiting for? This is one project totally worth clicking out of your permanently open Pinterest tab for.

Besides, those boards will be even more addicting when you’re paid to work on them.

Your Turn: Will you apply for our Pinterest-obsessed graphic designer position?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder, and it’s pretty much the best. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

The post Want to Get Paid to Be on Pinterest All Day? Work for The Penny Hoarder appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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78 Marketing Tasks You Should Outsource Immediately

If you’re like me, you stay busy.

Running a business is a tall order in and of itself. When you throw marketing into the mix, things can quickly become overwhelming.

If you haven’t felt this way yet, you’re going to feel it soon: There just aren’t enough hours in the day!

Here is one thing I learned early on in my business: outsourcing will save your life.

I speak from personal experience. There’s no way I could have done what I’ve done without strategically and carefully outsourcing a lot of the day-to-day marketing tasks that took up my time and kept me from focusing on other goals. 

Why I’m a fan of outsourcing

Outsourcing has tons of benefits.

Most businesses rely on outsourcing because they want to “focus on the core.” That’s another way of saying “we want to do what we do best.”

For you, the reasons may be different. You might have 29 things you have to do for a client, but you only have time to do 18 of them. You can outsource the rest.

I’m a major proponent of outsourcing a lot of the day-to-day tasks that are laborious and only hold me back from focusing on more pressing matters.

I’m probably different from other business owners, though. While some people have a top-down or hands-off approach to running their companies, I prefer to be in the thick of it.

You’ll see me personally interacting on Facebook, jumping into blog comments, and working on blog articles.

I like to be involved in these aspects of my business because I feel like they are one of my important business tasks—connecting with and learning from other marketers.

That’s one of the great things about outsourcing. You can be as involved as you want or as hands-off as you want. It’s up to you.

A lot of people I talk with are concerned about the cost of outsourcing. “But doesn’t it cost a lot to outsource these tasks?” they ask.

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, you have to pay for quality work.

But no, it doesn’t cost a lot because of the time you’re saving. If your time is worth, say, $50/hr, doesn’t it make sense to pay someone $35/hr to post to Facebook, create a video, proofread an article, or respond to blog comments?

If you can be doing your $50/hr work while your outsourcer is doing their $35/hr work, it’s a win-win-win. You win. They win. Your client wins.

And it’s not just time you’re saving. You’re also creating efficiency and increasing your quality. So maybe it’s a win-win-win-win-win.

Are there risks to outsourcing?

Sure, there are risks to anything.

I’ll admit that outsourcing has its fair share of risks. You can risk hiring the wrong person. You risk an outsourcer going AWOL. You run the risk of poor work standards. You even risk your brand being tarnished when an outsourced worker gets shoddy with their work.

There’s a flip side to this.

Most entrepreneurs and marketers are concerned they’ll get low quality work if they outsource.

What I’ve discovered is that you can actually improve the quality of work if you outsource.

Let’s say you need to create an explainer video for a new product. You can do it yourself with your iPhone and feeble editing skills.

Or you can outsource it to an explainer video professional.

If you outsource it, the quality will be a million times better than the quality you’d get if you’d tried to do it yourself.

See what I mean?

Besides, you don’t always need perfection when it comes to marketing. Although I tend to be a perfectionist, I’ve realized that done is better than perfect.

But I believe the rewards are greater than the risks. Besides, part of being a good marketer is being a good manager to other marketers.

The great thing is that there is a wide array of virtual assistants and marketing professionals available who will ensure that your campaign runs like a well-oiled machine without you having to hold their hand every step of the way.

Here are some specific tasks you should outsource right away.

Blogging

I always strive to maintain high quality standards on both NeilPatel.com and Quick Sprout. I’ve found I’m consistently able to do so without it devouring my time by outsourcing.

And I’m not alone. In fact, 64% of B2B marketers outsource their writing in some capacity.

Here are some of the ways you can improve your blog quality through outsourcing:

1. Moderating blog comments and filtering spam
2. Responding to the comments your readers leave
3. Performing research for upcoming blog posts
4. Generating new ideas and pitches for blog posts
5. Scheduling blog posts
6. Finding images and videos for blog posts
7. Adding meta descriptions, tags, and images to blog posts
8. Finding statistics to incorporate into posts
9. Proofreading for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and awkward phrasing
10. Making adjustments to older blog posts as new data is unveiled
11. Creating internal links to existing posts
12. Keeping an inventory of posts and the keywords used
13. Corresponding with your team of freelance writers
14. Hunting down guest blog opportunities
15. Coming up with pitches for guest posts
16. Reaching out to influencers in your industry

Social Media

In my opinion, social media may be pound-for-pound the easiest area of marketing to outsource.

One of the biggest challenges of social media is curating the content you plan to share. It can take an enormous amount of time simply to find good, relevant articles that your audience will benefit from. Outsourcing this task is an instant way to free up several hours a week!

Think about the importance of visuals in your social media content too. Adding images to individual posts is a massive time drain…unless you outsource it!

A lot of tasks don’t require an immense amount of experience. Most virtual assistants are fully capable of handling them with minimal supervision:

17. Managing and approving friend or follow requests
18. Inviting followers to attend events
19. Sending out personalized birthday greetings to key contacts
20. Sharing your blog content across social networks
21. Finding and editing images to use in posts
22. Curating quality content from relevant sources
23. Scheduling posts across all social platforms
24. Keeping track of brand mentions
25. Uploading new videos to YouTube
26. Creating questionnaires and surveys
27. Engaging with friends and followers
28. Ensuring all profiles are updated on a consistent basis
29. Sending out thank-yous to new followers
30. Commenting, retweeting, and interacting with interesting content
31. Designing and occasionally redesigning profiles

SEO

While you don’t want just anyone handling the more complex aspects of SEO, there are several elements of SEO that virtual assistants are fully capable of looking after. Many freelancers have the skill to perform keyword research, create a 301 map, or generate a thorough sitemap.

If you’re looking for someone to deal with the nuts and bolts of SEO, you’ll want to go with a highly qualified SEO firm who has a track record of success.

This post from Kissmetrics discusses what to look for in an SEO firm and how to tell if they’re helping or hurting you.

These are some of the SEO tasks that can be outsourced:

33. Performing keyword research
34. Creating catchy headlines
35. Setting up a sitemap
36. Building and editing landing pages
37. Performing off-site optimization such as commenting on other blogs
38. Analyzing the SEO campaigns of competitors
39. Tracking the position of your content in search engines
40. Researching cutting edge SEO trends
41. Submitting content to directories
42. Handling social bookmarking
43. Monitoring site speed
44. Performing an occasional SEO audit
45. Keeping up with Google algorithm updates

Content marketing

Did you know that 72% of large organizations and 33% of small companies outsource their content creation?

Content marketing is my jam. I love it. I do it. And I’ve experienced incredible success with it.

As experienced as I am, I feel completely comfortable outsourcing numerous aspects of content marketing.

Let’s face it: content marketing takes serious time. As content marketing grows, you’ll discover there are more and more tasks you need to—but don’t have time to—do.

You’re left with a single choice: outsource or drown.

Here is what you can outsource:

46. Creating offsite content that links back to your website and blog
47. Interviewing sources
48. Finding statistics to add
49. Repurposing content, using a variety of mediums such as infographics, videos, slideshows and webinars
50. Creating and managing your editorial calendar
51. Establishing deadlines for content
52. Building spreadsheets for your editorial calendar
53. Backing up content in the Cloud
54. Finding and editing photos
55. Converting files
56. Working on increasing post engagement
57. Keeping track of your content marketing budget
58. Ensuring all content is mobile-friendly

You can learn more about the process of outsourcing content marketing on one of my previous posts. In it, I discuss some important questions to ask to ensure you get the most bang for your buck.

Analytics

Every good marketer makes decisions based on analytics.

But analytics can be tricky. You have to set up your analytics, configure the analytics, generate reports from your analytics, monitor these analytics, analyze the analytics, determine takeaways from the analytics, and then make strategic marketing decisions in light of these analytics.

Thankfully, there are parts of the analytics maze you can outsource:

59. Monitoring trends with traffic, acquisition, conversions, etc.
60. Spotting long-term patterns
61. Generating daily, weekly, and monthly reports
62. Analyzing engagement
63. Determining how cost-effective your marketing techniques are

Reputation Management

Knowing what the public perception of your business is at all times has never been more important than it is today. In fact, 97% of consumers say they read reviews about local businesses.

Due to the fact that reputation management can be inherently time-consuming, I’ve found outsourcing it to be a smart move:

64. Handling social listening across the web
65. Monitoring reviews on sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List
66. Getting consumer feedback
67. Paying attention to negative press
68. Responding to negative comments
69. Managing trolls

Email marketing

Email marketing matters more today than ever before.

As old-school as it sounds, email marketing is one of the best methods of attracting and retaining high-value leads for your B2B or B2C.

But, as with any area of marketing, things can get tricky here too. Why? Because it takes a lot of time to set up email, integrate it, create updates, format newsletters, and take care of the nitty-gritty of mailing lists and scheduling.

It’s one of the first things you should consider outsourcing:

70. Creating newsletters
71. Proofreading and editing emails
72. Sending out bulk emails
73. Responding to questions

WordPress

WordPress could be considered the universal blogging and publishing platform.

In fact, 26% of all websites on the planet use WordPress. If you run your site on it, you can make your life a lot simpler by outsourcing a few key tasks:

74. Monitoring and managing plugins
75. Installing new plugins
76. Providing WP support
77. Tweaking templates
78. Handling coding

Conclusion

We’re living in a globalized, digitized world with a surplus of professionals who can handle nearly every aspect of your marketing campaigns.

As a result, outsourcing many marketing tasks makes complete sense and has never been easier to do.

I’ve had a lot of success with outsourcing, and I know I’m not alone. Many of my industry colleagues and clients have told me the same thing. If it weren’t for outsourcing, they wouldn’t be in business!

Once you start outsourcing, amazing things will happen to your business.

You suddenly find yourself with more time to focus on high-level strategy. Instantly, you encounter new opportunities for growth and expansion. Your vision becomes clearer. You open up new channels of engagement. Things simply improve.

Outsourcing is a small move that starts the cascade of great benefits.

If you haven’t been taking advantage of outsourcing, I would recommend first identifying which tasks are hurting your efficiency and then hiring others to handle them.

Here’s my challenge: This week, outsource just one marketing task. That’s it!

Use Fiverr, Upwork, or Craigslist. Find someone who’s skilled. Give them a task. See what happens.

Have you outsourced any other areas of your marketing efforts that I didn’t cover?

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How to Minimize or Eliminate Many Repeated Household Buys

Many of the household supplies that we buy at the store are simply replacements for other things, often sold to us in a slightly altered form and advertised as being more “convenient” than “old fashioned” methods. However, the truth of the matter is that they’re mostly just more expensive and the “convenience” that they offer is minimal, if not nonexistent.

If you dig into the reality of many specific household product purchases, there are many smarter ways to get the same effect at a much lower cost. Here are some of my favorite strategies for minimizing or eliminating common household purchases.

Paper towels Sure, paper towels can be really useful for cleaning up a mess in a pinch, but once you use them, they’re gone. You toss them in the trash and before you know it, you’re replacing the roll. Replace a few rolls and before you know it, you’re headed back to the store.

A much better approach is to simply have a “rag drawer” in your kitchen. Grab a rag when you have a mess and you’ll find that it absorbs much better than a paper towel, works really well with soaps and the water from your sink, doesn’t fall apart while cleaning, and when you’re done, you just toss it in with the dirty clothes. Having a drawer full of rags is a perfect substitute for paper towel use and turns that recurring expense into a very rare one.

Paper plates Paper plates are a convenience many people turn to in situations where they’re serving a lot of people or serving outdoors, where more expensive and fragile ceramic or earthenware plates can easily be broken.

Instead of using paper plates, which hit the trash and can never be used again, buy a large bundle of plastic plates for those occasions. Bring them out for picnics and set out a bin for people to throw their dirty plates into, then just run them through the dishwasher. If you’re going on a picnic, you can stow a few plates in your basket for clean eating, too. You’ll never have to buy a stack of paper plates again.

Paper napkins Many people use paper napkins to clean fingers and faces after a meal or to help with minor spills or drink condensation. While a paper napkin can certainly handle such things, putting them out for every meal is a recurring expense.

Avoid that recurring expense by getting a handful of dark cloth napkins and using them for every meal. When you’re done, just toss them in the laundry. Sturdy cloth napkins last for hundreds of uses, completely eliminate the need for paper napkins, and actually look very classy on the dinner table. (One great strategy for keeping them clean is to keep a small laundry basket in the pantry to toss rags and napkins into after using them and then wash a bunch of them at once in a single load.)

Paper or plastic cups Again, these tend to be useful if you’re serving drinks to a lot of people, but again, they tend to end up just thrown away at the end of the event.

The simple approach, again, is to just buy a large quantity of plastic tumblers and keep them in storage for big events. After the tumblers are used, you can just run a bunch right through the dishwasher and drop them straight back into storage.

Window cleaner Many people buy bottles of window cleaner in order to clean all of the glass surfaces in their home. It works well in many cases, but do you know what works similarly well?

Vinegar.

Yep, humble white vinegar. When you run out of your current spray bottle of Windex, hang onto the bottle and then fill it with equal parts vinegar and water and then a drop or two of liquid dish soap, shaking it thoroughly to mix. You’ll find that this mixture does a wonderful job of cleaning windows hand in hand with a clean cloth. Plus, it’s far cheaper to just buy a giant jug of vinegar than to buy much smaller containers of window cleaner.

Laundry soap I’m often stunned at how expensive laundry soap is. Even the cheaper brands can cost as much as a quarter per load; more expensive options can reach half a dollar a load just for the cleaning substances. That’s ridiculously overpriced, considering that most of the things we wash really aren’t all that dirty to begin with. You don’t need heavy duty stuff to get a bit of sweat or a few marks of dirt out of a garment.

I’ve experimented with homemade laundry soap many times in the past and I’ve come to the conclusion that the best solution is a powder made of equal parts borax, washing soda, and soap flakes (which you can either buy as a box or bag of flakes or make yourself by grating a bar of ordinary soap). Just add a teaspoon of that mix to any load of laundry and it’ll come out wonderfully clean.

Laundry softener What about good old laundry softener? You add it to a special tray in your washer just before you wash your clothes (or else add a sheet to your dryer for the same effect) and your clothes theoretically come out wonderfully soft to the touch and wonderful to put on.

The thing is, you can actually soften your clothes quite well by doing the same thing with vinegar. Yep, humble white vinegar, again. Just add a capful of white vinegar to the softener slot on your washing machine and you’ll have very similar results to that expensive fabric softener. As with the window washing fluid above, you can easily just buy a giant container of vinegar for the same price as a small container of fabric softener and get almost the same effect.

Dish soap Dish soap is a wonderful thing. It takes away the grease and food particles that can coat our dishes and even help take off some of the hard burnt-on materials, leaving our dishes and silverware amazingly clean.

Of course, you can easily make your own. Just take four cups of water, bring it to a boil, add 3/4 cup soap flakes, stir it until the soap flakes are dissolved, add 1/4 cup washing soda and 2 teaspoons of glycerin, stir it some more, then add it slowly to an empty dish soap bottle when it’s just barely stopped boiling. Let it sit for 24 hours and you have some great dish soap. If you only have a small bottle, halve this recipe, and you may need to add a little more water depending on the type of soap that you use.

Again, if you buy the ingredients at the store, you’re going to have them in such tremendous bulk for this recipe that you won’t be buying any more for a long while and you won’t need to buy dish soap again, either.

Toilet paper One final strategy, one that might be way “out there” for some people in the United States, is to simply minimize or completely eliminate toilet paper use through the use of a bidet. A bidet is simply a device that provides cleanliness with targeted jets of water rather than with toilet paper and, speaking from experience, it actually works rather well. It’s just unfamiliar, since it’s a device that has never really caught on in the United States, though they are common in the rest of the world.

A bidet eliminates the vast, vast majority of toilet paper use, requiring only the tiniest bit for drying afterwards, as there is no real use for cleaning. Given that it only uses a very small amount of highly targeted water, there’s very little cost in using a bidet. Bidets are actually pretty easy to install on any toilet with a simple attachment that can be installed with a screwdriver and a few minutes of work; in fact, this specific model comes highly recommended for both installation and use.

Final Thoughts

Each of these strategies either entirely eliminates a common household purchase or else replaces it with another item or two that can be stretched to incredible lengths. In either event, your routine costs for household products will drop if you use any of these strategies, and the more of them you use, the lower your regular grocery store bills will become.

Good luck!

The post How to Minimize or Eliminate Many Repeated Household Buys appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Get FREE Popcorn This Sunday at AMC Theatres. Here’s How

It’s crunchy. It’s buttery. It’s lip-tinglingly salty.

No movie theater or Netflix experience is complete without it.

In fact, pretty much no life experience is complete without it. I’ll even admit to sometimes having it for dinner.

Yep, it’s popcorn. And yep, I’m a fangirl.

This Sunday, July 31, you can get a large bag of it at AMC — completely free.

Free Popcorn for AMC Stubs Members This Sunday

To celebrate the implementation of a new tier system in its Stubs Rewards program, AMC Theatres nationwide will hand out free large bags of popcorn to members.

If you’re not already enrolled, no worries: The “Insider” level of the Stubs program is completely free, and you can join it at the theater on Sunday.

Along with the already-totally-worthwhile instant gratification of free popcorn, enrolling in Stubs will help you save money at AMC in the future, too.

You’ll get free refills on any large popcorn order, reduced ticket prices and a free birthday gift in the form of — you guessed it — a large bag of popcorn.

If you’re a serious movie buff, you can upgrade your membership to the new “Premiere” level, whose $15 annual fee gets you more points per purchase, bigger freebies and rewards, and “premiere service” at the box office.

But even if you’re not big on cinema outings, you can take advantage of Sunday’s deal.

The press release doesn’t specify that a purchase is necessary, so you could conceivably walk in, get your free popcorn and leave, if the new “Star Trek” or “Bourne” movies don’t pique your interest.

Either way, you know where you’ll find me this Sunday — I’ve been itching to see the new “Ghostbusters.”

And since it’s free, no, I’m not sharing. You can get your own.

Your Turn: Will you take advantage of the free popcorn deal at AMC this weekend?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

The post Get FREE Popcorn This Sunday at AMC Theatres. Here’s How appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Could Ugly Vegetables Help You Save Money and Reduce Food Waste?

I love entering a grocery store and seeing bins full of colorful produce. Nature’s bounty in all its beauty, right?

Well, as it turns out, not really. Nature — and its produce — is far from perfect.

And our desire for ravishingly red radishes and adorably round oranges isn’t benign: It means more than six billion pounds of fresh produce a year never make it to the store.

Outrageous, right?

What if, instead, you could buy that “cosmetically challenged” produce — not only preventing enormous amounts of food waste, but also saving money?

In recent years, these questions have begun to percolate, and finally the big guys (thank you, Walmart!) are noticing…

Here’s what you need to know about ugly produce — and why it’s important.

What’s Ugly Produce? And Why Does It Matter?

Image from Imperfect Produce

You may have heard the startling statistic that Americans throw away 40% of our food — $160 billion worth of food — an obscene waste of time, money and resources.

And though you can do your best to combat food waste once you get home, real change must start with our buying habits.

“Farms are actually the number one place where food is going to waste in America,” explains Ben Simon, co-founder of Imperfect, a distributor of ugly produce.

“It’s estimated about 20% of all fruits and veggies grown in the country don’t make it off the farm,” he says.

What? Why?

Image from Imperfect Produce

Mostly, Simon says, due to “cosmetic issues.” Meaning they’re not pretty enough for us to buy — a standard we, the consumers, have set at grocery stores.

“It’s all about blemish-free produce,” one produce distributor told The Guardian. “What happens in our business today is that it is either perfect, or it gets rejected.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t care that much about how my produce looks; I just want it to taste good.

Simon’s customers agree. Imperfect ships boxes of ugly fruits and vegetables to more than 5,200 subscribers in the Bay Area.

They’re saving money, too: an average of 30%-50% over regular produce, estimates Simon.

More important than the savings, though, are the environmental and societal gains that come with buying ugly produce.

“Within the U.S., discarded food is the biggest single component of landfill and incinerators,” The Guardian reports. “Food dumps are a rising source of methane, a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.”

And, when we stop wasting food, more can go to those who need it. This National Geographic article explains how ugly fruits and vegetables can help solve world hunger.

So, when you buy ugly produce, you’re not only saving money — you’re also doing a good thing for the world around you.

Where Can You Find Ugly Produce?

Image from Imperfect Produce

On board with ugly produce? I thought so.

Unfortunately, finding it is tougher than it should be.

Simon’s company currently serves the Bay area, and plans to expand to the rest of California soon. Click here to request your area be next!

Hungry Harvest offers a similar service in the Baltimore, DC and Philadelphia areas. Sign up for its newsletter, and you’ll get a free box if it comes to your area.

Even if you live outside those cities, there are still a few things you can do:

1. Check Your Farmers Market

Image from Imperfect Produce

Try going directly to the farmers themselves; they might be happy to part with produce they’d otherwise have to toss.

Be careful, though: Simon warns some farmers may try to sell you products that are “distressed” or about to expire. To avoid this, carefully examine any produce before purchasing it.

“Look at it, feel it, smell it,” he says. If you’re not sure what to look for, here’s a primer on picking ripe produce.

Don’t live near any farms? Check Falling Fruit, a network of urban foragers that helps you find the “overlooked culinary bounty of our city streets.”

2. Ask Your Grocery Store

Image from Imperfect Produce

Ugly produce has only made its way into a handful of grocery stores — you can see which ones on EndFoodWaste.org’s supermarket directory. Imperfect, for example, sells its produce to 11 Whole Foods stores in California.

Last week, Walmart made waves by announcing that, in addition to the ugly potatoes (“Spuglies”) it’s been selling in Texas since March, it will now offer ugly apples in 300 stores in Florida.

These 5-pound bags will cost $4.97, wrote Walmart spokesman John Ales in an email. For reference, a 5-pound bag of regular Red Delicious apples at my Walmart costs $5.42, so the imperfect bag would be a savings of 8%.

On a recent trip to my Walmart here in Saint Petersburg, Florida, I didn’t see any — and the staff weren’t aware of the program — but hopefully they’ll be on the shelves soon.

Simon supports the major retailer’s decision, calling it “a good start,” but is skeptical of its long-term effects.

“As far as they are saying, this is just a one-time effort,” he says. “We need more grocery stores taking the leap that Whole Foods is with Imperfect. That means selling year-round, not just doing a one-time sale and putting out a press release.”

In the likely case your grocery store doesn’t sell ugly produce, Simon recommends speaking to the produce manager.

“The industry is becoming more and more aware of food waste,” he says, “so the more consumers bring it to them, the more the issue can be on the industry’s radar.”

EndFoodWaste.org’s Jordan Figueiredo agrees that speaking up is key — he even offers a “#DemandUgly Toolkit” on his site with pre-written social media posts to help spark change.

3. Reduce Food Waste at Home

skynesher/Getty Images

Even if you can’t find ugly produce in your area, you can still take steps to combat food waste at home.

Buy what you’ll eat, and eat what you buy, Simon urges.

“It’s really important to plan out your meals before you go to the grocery store,” he says. “Figure out what recipes or meals you want to cook in a given week and then go from there.”

Leanne Brown, author of the fantastic cookbook “Good & Cheap,” frames this as only buying produce you “have a purpose for.”

Simon also recommends creating an “Eat this first” bin, where you can place food items that will only be good for a few more days. (Related reading: what “sell-by” dates really mean.)

Wasting food, and thereby, wasting money, goes against everything we Penny Hoarders stand for. So do your best to find and purchase ugly produce and combat food waste within your home.

These steps might seem small — but in the face of billions of pounds and dollars of annual food waste, I’d say every carrot counts.

Your Turn: Would you buy ugly produce? Have you seen any in your area?

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

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We Throw Away $160 Billion(!) in Food Each Year. Here’s How to Stop

Filed under depressing statistics: Americans wasted $160 billion worth of food — or 130 billion pounds of it — in 2010, according to the USDA.

Yes, both of those figures are billion, with a “b.”

What’s worse? The results of a new survey-based study released in scientific journal PLOS ONE reveal most of us know it’s a problem… but feel powerless to do anything to stop it.

Americans Think Food Waste is Inevitable in Their Busy Lives

The survey, conducted by market research firm SSRS, questioned 500 people selected to be representative of national demographics.

The findings were somewhat disappointing — and baffling.

Although almost 77.2% of respondents reported feeling guilty for throwing away food, more than half (51.2%) agreed that “it would be difficult to reduce household waste further.”

Why? Well, we just have so many other things to do: Almost a full quarter of participants said they “don’t have enough time to worry about the amount of food wasted.”

That’s surprising. You’d think, given the astronomical total mentioned above, that money might motivate us to make time to correct food wastage…

… but less than half of respondents thought that “throwing away food is a major source of wasted money.”

Hmm.

How to Reduce Food Waste in Your Own Home

If this survey does present an accurate representation, many Americans are clearly more than a little disconnected from reality.

Food waste is a huge problem, and not just because of personal financial drain.

It also has steep environmental consequences, since food production is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions — to say nothing of the fact that millions of people don’t have access to the food we’re simply throwing away.

Luckily, there are lots of ways around this problem — and they don’t take up much of your time.

A big one? Don’t be a slave to sales.

Although buying in bulk can save you a ton of money, it’s still a waste if you end up throwing it away. According to the survey, 52.9% of us waste more food when we buy it in large packages or at sales.

Another thing: Stop religiously following expiration dates.

Almost 70% of survey respondents agreed that throwing away food that’s past its expiration date reduces the chances of someone becoming ill after eating it.

But here’s the big secret: In lots of cases, that’s simply not true. Here’s our full guide to what sell-by dates mean for food safety — and when you should, and shouldn’t, ignore them.

Finally, choose and store your food appropriately to ensure the longest possible shelf life for fresh items.

According to the USDA’s 2014 study, the top three food groups contributing to waste totals were “meat, poultry, and fish (30%, $48 billion); vegetables (19%, $30 billion); and dairy products (17%, $27 billion).”

Obviously, sell-by dates and freshness matter very much for fresh items like these. That’s why we have posts on how to store your groceries to keep them good long enough to eat them — and how to choose the best possible produce in the first place.

There, that didn’t take very long at all, did it?

Your Turn: How will you help stop America’s food waste problem?

Jamie Cattanach is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. Her writing has also been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.

The post We Throw Away $160 Billion(!) in Food Each Year. Here’s How to Stop appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Barclays boosts PPI payout fund by £400m

Tom Wilson

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Barclays has put aside a further £400 million to cover payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints, its latest half-year accounts reveal today.

Barclays has put aside a further £400 million to cover payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints, its latest half-year accounts reveal today.

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A stocks and shares Isa is Moneywise users' top choice if they had a windfall

Helen Knapman

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The majority of Moneywise.co.uk users, at 22%, would invest most of a £10,000 lump sum in a stocks and shares Isa, our latest poll reveals.

The majority of Moneywise.co.uk users, at 22%, would invest most of a £10,000 lump sum in a stocks and shares Isa, our latest poll reveals.

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SSE's switching process to be investigated

Helen Knapman

SSE-logo.jpg

An investigation has today been launched into SSE’s pre-payment switching process.

An investigation has today been launched into SSE’s pre-payment switching process.

Energy regulator Ofgem is concerned that the Big Six energy provider may not be treating customers fairly.

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9 Expert Tips for Raising Money-Smart Kids Who Aren’t Spoiled

“When you ask parents to name the worst single word that anyone could use to describe their child,” writes Ron Lieber, “a surprising number of them answer right away with the word spoiled.”

I’m not surprised. No one wants a toddler who throws tantrums whenever they don’t get their way, or a teenager who doesn’t appreciate what they’ve been given.

And, as Lieber points out in his book, “The Opposite of Spoiled,” there’s a culpability at the root of this fear.

“Unlike mean or stupid… spoiled reflects parental actions,” he writes. “Spoiled by whom? Spoiled by you.”

Are you a parent who wants your kids to be money-smart — but not spoiled?

Then keep reading…

I sat down with Lieber and got his best tips for raising kids who are “the opposite of spoiled” — in other words, “grounded, generous and smart about money.”

Why Talking About Money is Important

Not only is Lieber an author, speaker and the New York Times’ “Your Money” columnist, he’s the father to two daughters — a 10-year-old and a 10-month-old.

When his older daughter started asking tough questions about money seven years ago, he realized how “crucial” it is to discuss finances with your kids — and that no one really knows how to do it.

So he talked to families and scientists across the country, and wrote a book called “The Opposite of Spoiled.” Though it’s targeted at families with household incomes of $50,000 or more, the advice rings true for any parent.

After all, being spoiled doesn’t necessarily correlate with how much money you have.

Spoiled kids, Lieber explains, have the following in common: few chores and rules, parents who “lavish them with time and assistance” and “a lot of material possessions.”

Note only the last one is associated with money.

No matter how much money their parents earn, understanding personal finance is essential for all kids — both now and in the future.

Because, as Lieber writes, this knowledge “will quite literally count as they struggle to compare the right numbers and set themselves up for adulthood.”

9 Expert Tips for Raising Generous, Money-Smart Kids

So you want your kids to be generous and financially savvy — and hopefully avoid the same mistakes you made?

Here’s a sampling of Lieber’s excellent advice:

1. Answer Questions With a Question

Kids are going to ask tough questions.

The best response, Lieber writes, is another question: “Why do you ask?”

Not only does this open up “at least 10 seconds of stalling time,” it also “gives you a shot at finding the source of the anxiety.”

And once you find it, he writes, the question becomes much easier to address.

If it’s the result of idle lunch-table talk, you can simply redirect the conversation. If it stems from anxiety, often some reassurance — rather than hard-hitting truths and numbers — is all they need.

For example, if your child asks if you’ll become poor because you lost your job, Lieber explains they likely just want to know things will be OK — “that they won’t have to move or leave their school or give up a pet.”

2. Just Say “No”

I’m not gonna lie: This is one of the things that scares me most about having kids.

Since it’s hard to say “no” to your children, Lieber suggests explaining your decision in terms of wants and needs.

When he says “no” to his older daughter, he tells her it’s a “want” and “more than we’re willing to spend.” Then he lets her know she can save up for it if she decides it’s a “need” for her.

As for common parental worries like, “What if my child thinks I’m mean?” or “I don’t want them to hate me,” Lieber’s response is simple:

“Who cares?” he writes. “It’s not our job to make them like us; it’s our job to turn them into adults who can make better financial decisions than we were able to… That’s the goal. We’re in the grown-up making business here.”

Down the road, I think I’ll print that out and stick it in my wallet.

3. Distribute Allowances Between Three Jars

How can a 10-year-old save for a purchase? With her allowance.

Lieber suggests creating three jars and labeling them “spend,” “save” and “give.”

The “save” jar helps kids learn about delayed gratification and avoiding impulse purchases. It also helps them develop “gratitude for the fact they’re lucky enough to have a little bit left over.”

As for how much you should pay out, he says, “For the younger ones, 50 cents or $1 a week for every year they’ve been alive is good.”

For example, you could start your 6-year-old on $3 a week, and ask her to distribute her “paycheck” evenly between her jars. 

4. Don’t Tie Allowances to Chores

Lieber believes in allowances — so kids can get practice “thinking and counting” and determining which goals are “extravagant” versus “worthwhile” — but he says you shouldn’t tie them to chores.

Why? Because “it puts you in a bad negotiating position,” he explains.

What if your kid saves up enough money and decides they’re not doing chores anymore?

You can’t just claim, “No, that’s not how it works,” he says. “If you change the rules a year or two into it, then they’re not sure they should trust you anymore.”

Lieber adds: “There’s also a good case to be made that kids shouldn’t be compensated for doing the basic work of maintaining the household. The grown-ups certainly aren’t paid for that.”

5. Let Them Make Mistakes

I still remember one really dumb financial choice I made as a child. Although I was filled with remorse at the time, I’m glad it happened; $7 was a small price to pay for a lifetime of frugality.

Lieber agrees that regret — even if it’s “searing” at the time — is one of the best ways to learn about money.

So, he suggests you give your kids “as much leeway as you can stomach.” Those memories last a long time (yes, yes, they do) and Lieber says “that’s a good thing.”

“We want them to make their big mistakes when they’re still under our roof.”

6. Introduce the Idea of “Hours of Fun per Dollar”

How on earth can you teach your kids about the value of certain items when they don’t yet understand money and prices?

Try using the concept of “hours of fun per dollar,” a strategy Lieber learned from some of his readers.

When you’re at the toy store, ask your kids how many hours of fun they’ll have with a certain toy before they’ll tire of it — and then use that to determine if it’s worth the price.

Take Legos, for example. They’re expensive, but as Lieber says, “[f]or kids who love them, they offer a pretty good amount of fun per dollar, because you can build almost anything.”

7. Encourage Teens to Work

Moving on from toys and toddlers to the joyous teenage years…

Make your kid get a job.

Of course, Lieber acknowledges, helping support their family isn’t a choice for some — but if it is for your teen, you should still encourage them to work outside the house.

“There’s all sorts of research out there that shows that as long as you’re not doing more than about 15 hours of paid work during the week, it shouldn’t affect your grades,” he says.

“It’s a powerful thing to get a paycheck and manage it yourself, and feel like you’re being rewarded for the hard work you put in — in a way that’s fundamentally different than the way

you might get rewarded… in school.”

8. Make Smart Choices About College

What’s the biggest financial mistake parents make?

“Signing up for a bigger tuition bill and more debt than we can afford,” says Lieber.

When your kids are staring at you with their “watery, googly eyes,” he acknowledges it’s extremely difficult to say no.

“But if you don’t put your foot down, you’re signing up for a fair amount of financial pain, potentially, that will last a very long time.”

Don’t co-sign on any loans either.

Since that usually means your child has maxed out their federal loans, Lieber says, being in “co-signing territory is already a strong signal that this [decision] is not affordable.”

9. Emphasize the Importance of Trade-Offs

I asked Lieber what one thing he hopes his daughter knows when she leaves home — and absolutely loved his response.

“That there are so many ways to be happy in the world, and that having more money than average isn’t necessarily going to help you get there.”

YES.  

“The best thing you can do is to know yourself, and understand which ways of spending money will make you happiest,” he says.

“It’s about learning to make trade-offs — which everybody has to do, no matter how much money they have. If you learn to make those trade-offs well, money ceases to be a source of stress and can potentially be a source of joy, even if you don’t have [a lot of it].”

Now that is a lesson we could all learn.

Want a copy of “The Opposite of Spoiled“? Enter below!

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Your Turn: Many thanks to Ron Lieber for sharing his advice with us! What’s your favorite tip from this interview?

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.

Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.

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Read our 10 most popular stories from July 2016

Gary Adams

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Make sure you're up to date with all the latest news, tips and guides by checking our 10 most popular stories on Moneywise.co.uk in July 2016.

Make sure you're up to date with all the latest news, tips and guides by checking our 10 most popular stories on Moneywise.co.uk in July 2016.

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