Savings Idea #6: Earn by Buying

There are many ways to earn money by selling off unwanted goods, as discussed last week. But you can easily earn money with little input with these Internet ideas.

Review your purchases at Epinions, and earn money on them indefinitely. Be sure to check in frequently, or lose your balance. Electronics and travel reviews are popular.

If you shop online and don’t use a shopping portal, someone’s losing money. You can shop through various charity portals; Box Tops for Education hosts 150 popular online retailers; click through the BT4E website and earn eBox Tops for your preferred school. Or you can get the cash back yourself. Our favorite online portal is FatWallet. The stores listed give you between 1% and 15% cash back on your purchases at their sponsored retailers, real cash which you can have delivered to your PayPal account or receive via check mailed to your home.

Register your grocery cards with Upromise, or your most favored credit card with a restaurant loyalty rewards program. These programs give you cash back, essentially, for purchases. Be careful, though; Upromise will send your earnings to the aforementioned escheats division in your state if you fail to login for 3 years.

Planning to get a credit card? Get one that gives you more; airline miles, hotel points, or cash back are all earnings that save you money in the long run.

Again, think creatively! Some stores, including WalMart, may pay YOU to take their goods home. Using coupons and store promotions, you can occasionally get the price of an item down to a negative number. WalMart, Kroger, and other stores return the change as a store gift card. This also works at drug stores with cash-back register rewards. If you have a coupon for an item that is going to earn you a rewards coupon on a future purchase equal to the amount of the item (buy a toothbrush at $2, get a $2-off reward), you can earn money by involving a cents-off MCP for that item.