I may be a stay at home mom…but that doesn’t mean that I can’t help bring in some money to help with our budget! There are several resources I use to bring in money and contribute towards our monthly budget.  With four kids we have to maintain a pretty strict budget to insure we are able to provide all those essentials (and non essentials) for our kids.

First of all…I am obviously a blogger. With that said I do spend about 50+ hours a week working on my computer researching deals, coupons and free stuff. Yes I do this so that I myself can score the best deals for my own family…but also because I really want to help others save money. Now I am going to be honest helping others is always my first and primary incentive…however I also spend so many house “working” on finding deals because as a blogger I do make “some” money. How? Many (not all) of my post contain affiliate links…which means I receive a bit of a kick back when a reader clicks on the link and either prints the coupon, snatches up the freebie or purchases the deal. With that said…I NEVER post a deal I myself would not get….I NEVER post about a product or company I don’t believe in…and I ALWAYS try out the deals first before telling you about them. This means I try very hard to only post legitimate offers that are not spam and will be beneficial to my readers.
***How can you help your favorite bloggers you ask??? You can help by printing your coupons through the blog…signing up for the freebies and giveaways that are simply email submits…and just by reading, commenting and interacting with their webpage and on Facebook, Twitter and/or Pinterest! 

The second way I “work from home” to contribute to our income is with taking surveys. Now I use surveys as my resource for the “extra wants” in our home…like Christmas presents, Birthday party  budget, even to help pay for the sports my kids want to participate in. My oldest is a competitive gymnast…and as many of you know…gymnastics is a very expensive sport! Taking surveys help me pay for those costs…I am able to take surveys when it’s convenient for me (kids are nappy or in bed)…I can choose how many surveys I do each day.

Here is a list of my favorite surveys:

• MoneyTalk 
• MommyKnows
• Inbox Dollars
• Opinion Outpost
• Shadow Shopper
• I-Say Panel
• Zoombucks
• National Consumer Panel 

Fourth, in the past year I have found that many times I can actually save more money shopping online than driving around wasting gas and chasing down the deals. Amazon is one of my absolute favorite sites I use for online shopping! Especially for buying my household and baby products…toilet paper, paper towels, diapers…the best deals I have found have all been on Amazon…with FREE SHIPPING!!! Kohl’s and Target are also both favorite online shopping sites that I often times use…Target has AMAZING online daily deals with free shipping (or if you have a REDcard you will always get free shipping). Kohl’s seems like they are always offering promo codes with extra savings….free shipping and Kohl’s cash…when you combine all of those deals together…the savings is phenomenal! Another way to save online is with Ebates and ShopAtHome…they pay cash back rebates for your online purchases! Ebates also offers a $10 gift card bonus for signing up and making your first online purchase and ShopAtHome pays you a $5 cash bonus! Every penny counts right!!!