Blog - Making Sense Of Cents

How To Become A Paid Product Reviewer – Product Review Jobs Review

Last Updated: May 23, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Welcome to my Product Review Jobs Review.

If you are searching for paid online surveys, then I have one for you to check out today.

Back when I was paying off my student loans, I did a lot of things to make extra money – I sold items on eBay, managed social media for companies, mystery shopped, and took paid online surveys.

Being able to review products online was great because I could get free products to test, such as household goods, as well as make some extra money too.

Plus, I could do it all from home.

In today’s article, I am going to go over a new product review website – Product Review Jobs.

Product Review Jobs was created to connect people (like you and me) to companies that are looking for feedback on their products and services.

Product Review Jobs is a company that is currently looking for paid product testers. You can work from home and test new products before they hit the stores.

The average amount paid per product review is $25.

There are currently over 4,000 people who are getting paid through Product Review Jobs to test products for the companies that they connect you with.

Please click here to sign up for Product Review Jobs.

In this Product Review Jobs Review, I am going to go over some common questions about Product Review Jobs, such as who they are, how you can get paid testing products, and more. [Read more…]

How My Family of 4 Flies Free 6 Times Every Year

Last Updated: May 20, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Today, I have a great guest post to share from Lyn Mettler. Lyn is sharing how her family of 4 flies for free. Enjoy.

My family just got back from Kauai.

This is our second spring break in a row flying free to Hawaii. Last year, we scored an amazing deal to fly all 4 of us to Maui, and this year, we decided to return to check out the “Garden Isle” of Kauai.

But that’s only one of 4 trips we’ve taken by plane in the last 7 months. Add to the list Miami, Universal Studios Orlando and Disney World.

This is how my family rolls these days. We’ve been flying all 4 of us free 6 times a year since I learned about travel rewards back in 2015.

Back then, air travel was not even something I considered. Pay to fly 4 of us anywhere? Not in the budget, because there was no money to spare on anything besides bills.

If we got lucky, my in-laws would pay for us to meet them at Disney World every few years, and a couple times, my husband and I dipped into our credit cards to take a couples’ trip to a condo my family owned in Colorado (so no hotel expense!). Otherwise, no travel for my family.

But everything changed in 2015.

As a longtime travel writer for outlets like US News & World Report, the TODAY Show and USA Today’s 10Best, I frequently interviewed travel experts, and one day I was pitched a story about a couple who was flying around the world FREE using frequent flyer miles, but they weren’t earning their miles by flying. This blew my mind, because I thought to earn “frequent” flyer miles, you had to frequently fly, right? This is how my dad, a longtime business traveler, earned his miles, at least.

But no. They were earning travel rewards in other ways, never paying for a flight AT ALL. [Read more…]

How To Monetize A Blog: How I Grew A $5 Million Blog

Last Updated: May 16, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 18 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Want to learn how to monetize a blog?

What started as just a hobby turned into one of the most life-changing things I’ve ever done – that’s starting my blog, and learning how to make money with it.

Since learning how to monetize a blog over 10 years ago, I have now earned over $5,000,000 from my site. This is still hard for me to believe, and I’m the one who’s lived it!

I started Making Sense of Cents around 10 years ago, entirely as a hobby.

In the beginning, all I was doing was tracking my own personal finance progress as I finished school and started paying off my student loans. Blogging was a very new concept to me at the time – I heard about it from a magazine – and people were just learning how to monetize blogs back in 2011.

Most bloggers started back then with display ads and sponsored posts, but the options have only increased.

Because of all of the new ways to make money blogging, like affiliate income and selling your own products, you can make somewhat passive income as a blogger.

Passive income is my favorite way to make money because it makes blogging even more flexible and something I can do as I work from home, travel, and work whenever I want.

Blogging has changed my life for the better, and I’m now earning thousands of dollars a month doing something I love.

Learning how to monetize a blog takes work and time, but it’s 100% possible to do. I started earning money after just six months of blogging, and I didn’t even set out to make money when I created Making Sense of Cents. Just think of the potential if you start out knowing that making money blogging is possible!

Starting my blog is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my work, personal, and financial life. And, I urge anyone who is interested to start a blog and learn how to monetize it.

Today, I’m sharing how I built a blog that has earned me over $5,000,000 over the years and my tips so that you can create a successful blog that you enjoy. [Read more…]

118 Things To Do When Bored At Home

Last Updated: May 9, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

“I am bored what should I do?”

Are you feeling bored? Here is a list of over 100 things to do when bored at home. These ideas may help you feel better, be more productive, make money, save money, have fun, and more.

When you’re bored or procrastinating, you may usually just feel like scrolling on your phone or watching TV. But, there are many other things that you can do as well which may help to improve your life, feel more productive, or simply just relax more.

The items on this list may help you to finally tackle tasks that you have forgotten about, get things done that you normally never do, or perhaps even improve your mental health.

There are many different things that you can do when you feel bored at home.

Below, I have separated this list of things to do when bored at home into categories such as:

Learning something new
Visiting your local library
Getting outside
Ideas for self-improvement
Things you can do around your home when you’re bored
Ideas to make extra money
Finding ways to save money
Ways to improve your relationships with friends and family
Different ways you can help others around you
Creative things you can make at home

This enormous list of things to do when bored was a lot of fun to put together, and it gave me a lot of great ideas for what I can do right now as well! [Read more…]

How We Paid Off $70,000 of Debt in 7 Months

Last Updated: May 6, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I have a great debt payoff story to share from a reader, Samantha Brandon. This is how her family paid off $70,000 in debt in 7 months.

Like everyone else, the pandemic made us take a pause and reassess our lives.

We were lucky. We had great jobs making respectable salaries (I’m a pharmacist and my husband is a maintenance manager). We were so lucky to have purchased a home at the end of 2019 RIGHT before the market hike.

Yet, we were living paycheck to paycheck.

And I know what some of you may be thinking. How can you make six figure salaries and still be living paycheck to paycheck?

Easy. It’s called daycare for two children, student loans, and some miscellaneous debt living in a sunbelt city where living costs suddenly exploded.

And sorry, but no. I’m not moving to another city with a low cost of living, away from all of my family and friends to save money.

So, there we were. Six figure incomes but living paycheck to paycheck despite having a 15 year-old truck, 7-year-old Nissan Murano, a home WELL below our “means”, but still broke.

I’m a firm believer in taking control of your future, so we made some drastic decisions and got to work. [Read more…]

Ask Me Anything

Last Updated: May 2, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 107 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey,

It has been almost one year since my last Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents.

Since then a lot has changed, such as I had a baby and she is 4 months old now!

Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:

Personal finance
Blogging
My life
Travel
RVing
Sailing
Being location independent
Business
Making extra money

And so on, and so on.

Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate.

All right, go for it, ask away!

If you haven’t yet, please follow me on Instagram.

Here are links to common questions I’ve received in past Ask Me Anythings:

How To Start A Blog Free Course – With this free email course, I will show you exactly how to create a blog, from the technical side all the way to earning your first income and attracting followers. Each day for seven days, you will receive an email in your inbox that will help you create a successful and profitable blog.
29 Best Stay At Home Jobs (#1 Is My Full Time Job!) – Do you want to work at home or work while traveling? Here’s a list to get you started.
What It’s Like Living In An RV? – We lived in an RV full-time for several years. Here’s what I loved about it!
Living On A Boat – The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful – We have now lived on our sailboat for 4 years. Here’s what we like and don’t like about boat life.

P.S. If you’re looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.

How To Start A Vending Machine Business – How I Make $7,000 Monthly

Last Updated: April 25, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you want to learn how to start a vending machine business?

Lately, I have been hearing a lot about starting a vending machine side hustle and how it may be fairly passive income.

So, I wanted to do some research and see what I could learn on the subject.

Lakinya Francis, from iKrave Vending, is an expert in this area, and earns $7,000 to $10,000 a month from vending machines, and I interviewed Lakinya on how you can start a vending machine business of your own.

Are you wondering questions such as:

Is there room for new people to have a vending machine business in 2022?
How much does the average vending machine make in a day?
What type of vending machines make the most money?
How much does a vending machine cost?
How many hours does it take each week to run a vending machine business?
What are the negatives of owning a vending machine business?

Today’s interview will help you get started and perhaps even introduce you to a new way to make extra income.

You can click here to learn more about the Vending Machine Business Online Training Courses that Lakinya offers. [Read more…]