Time for the Truth
Have you ever done it? Signed up for yet another survey site, hoping this time you can actually make some money? Hoping that this time it won’t take hours to earn a $5 gift card?
I’ve been there! Trying to answer surveys every evening to make some money. But you want to know the truth? It’s not worth your time.
You could be doing something so much more productive. Creating a business, crafting a product, selling your extra stuff online, heck, even babysitting!
As Moms it is hard to fit it all in, hard to spend the day watching kids and then have the energy to devote to a side hustle at night or on the weekends. But I am so sick of bloggers pitching the survey site as a way to make real money.
Sure, I earned a few Amazon gift cards, maybe $10 dollars in my Paypal account, but not enough to really make a dent in my budget. Plus, it takes so much time! I could spend an hour just trying to qualify for a survey, then another hour answering questions, all for $2.
Momma, your time is worth more.
What Can I Do Instead?
There are so many other ways to earn money. Legit ways, that pay an actual hourly rate worth your time. I wrote 20+ Business Ideas for SAHM’s full of actual ideas for creating your own business.
And you know what? If you can stay home with your kids and survive, you can run your own business.
There is no reason to be intimidated by starting a business. It is not just for old men in suit jackets!
You can totally do it!
You don’t have to start a serious, adult business to make money. There are people doing all sorts of crazy wild things out there to make an extra buck.
Lena Gott wrote about 3 Things you can get for FREE and sell on Etsy. Its genius! I won’t give away the things, but I totally said “Duh!” when I read it.
How about eBay? You can sell toilet paper tubes or rocks. From Aldi to Harrods does a monthly round up of weird things that sell on eBay.
You could even stay in your pjs while selling online 🙂
How about growing flowers and setting up a little stand at the end of your driveway? Not gonna make you rich, but if you like to garden you could make your seed money that way.
One of my Farmer’s Market friends grew plants and flowers with her husband and then sold them at market. You inventory will carry over week to week with only a little water and if you grow them all yourself it is a business with low overhead.
Are you crafty? Here are 75 Crafts to Make and Sell. Figure out how you can put your own twist on a project and start selling. You don’t have to set up a website, or even an Etsy site, you can sell on many different Facebook groups, or Craigslist for free.
There are a ton of things that people will pay big bucks for that you might be able to find for cheap.
Ever heard of Babywearing? There are tons of Facebook groups dedicated to the art of babywearing and some of them are for buying and selling. If you can find good deals you can flip a wrap or carrier and end up with a good chunk of change.
Do you like to cook? Ask around for people who are too busy to cook and do a freezer cooking session for them. One afternoon of your time and they have easy, healthy food to pull out of the freezer. A win/win!
So now you know why I hate survey sites. There are many, many ways to make money when you stay home with the kids, but don’t get sucked in to poor replacements for creating your own business.
Have you done surveys? What has your experience been?
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HA.. did you peek into my screen or something I am survey queen .. I HATE doing the survey’s but do it because if I keep at it for 2wks and spend like 1 hr a day I’ll get the $25 sigh… so I’ll be checking out those links.. 4 kids and a SAHM and the oldest just started college YUP I need all the help I can get! Thanks for posting.
You can totally make more doing other things!
Haver never done it, only did user testing and as it sounds from your post that´s probably better as well 🙂
Good for you not believing the hype! Stay clear 😉
Amen. I used to do Swagbucks all the time but I was like, man, this is ridiculous! So now I just downloaded their search bar so I can earn pints that way and I feel like I rack up even more than I used to with surveys!
Ugh, I know, I hate survey’s too. I don’t have the time to spend taking all these surveys to only get a couple dollars in return. I am not sure how people do it enough to actually make real money.
Right? I don’t know how people possibly make as much as they say.
What an awesome post! I totally agree about the surveys they are are HUGE waste of time for little to no money! These are great ideas!
Thanks! Good to hear others agree with me 🙂
Even though I do actually do some survey sites, I agree with you. I do Swagbucks and let some videos run or occasionally do a survey, but overall you can’t make much, that’s for sure. I hate it when I answer a bunch of questions and then don’t even qualify. So annoying! But some survey sites aren’t too bad. If you only have a few minutes to spare then making $.50 for 10 minutes is better than nothing. But I definitely don’t recommend spending hours doing them and getting paid pennies!
Thanks for your insight! I agree that $.50 is better than nothing, but I still think you can spend your time in a better way and earn more overall.
Thanks for stopping by!
SurveySavvy has served me VERY well but I’ve yet to find any other site that’s worth my time.
I’ve never used them, but glad to know they were worth it for you.
Yes, I do Swagbucks and I love it. There have been weeks it literally put food on the table. No, I don’t spend hours on end for pennies. I do a few other sites but haven’t found them to be nearly as good so I don’t really work those ones anymore (Inbox Dollars is very popular but I found it difficult to reach the payout). I’ll keep my Swagbucks, thank you very much, but you definitely have some good ideas for other sources of extra income.
I am glad it works for you! I could never make enough to make it worth my time, but I understand that it does work for some people.
Oh yeah, these drive me insane. Such a waste of time. You’re so right about the opportunity cost. I think the only ones making money on these are those that are telling people to do these (so they earn commissions) and the survey site. People are working below minimum wage on these things. Crazy.
Right? There are so many better things to do with your time!