How I Make Extra Cash Working from Home (part-time)

First Person: I'm on Unemployment but I'm Still Working
Earning up to $58 a week by self-employment or part-time work is allowed without any reduction in unemployment aid in my state, Florida. This is how I've earned extra pocket cash during unemployment.

In Florida, an extra $58 per week can be earned without any reduction in unemployment benefits. Who knew? I certainly didn't during my first two months of unemployment last year! Read More

Backstory

I was only on Unemployment for 3 months and only earned extra cash for a couple of weeks before I returned to work (part-time) and Unemployment comp ended. The point of the article was that I could have earned extra cash for the whole frickin 3 months if I'd only known! 

The article mentions 3 ways that I've earned extra cash (other than writing): odd jobs, paid surveys, and mystery shopping. There were some snidely comments, mysteriously gone now, noting that the article should have included links to the legitimate paid survey & such sites.

I agree, they shoulda, but the Yahoo! article format stuff has limits on how many links (3-ish) in an article and where the links are going to & such. So the below links are to legitimate sites that I have earned cash from and know first-hand are legit and are not affiliate links (just because I haven't yet figured out the how-to for that yet).

Also, scroll down on the right side to my Blog Roll to find several great "Work from Home" blogs that have done a lot of research of the many options available - site links included. For those asking, these are my favorites:

Paid Surveys:

• Opinion Outpost 
• Ipsos i-Say

Tip: Recommend Survey Police for checking up on the latest Paid Surveys scoop, reviews, & they have a very active discussion forum. 

Mystery Shopping:

• Market Force
• CRI 

Tip: Mystery shopping isn't as easy as it might seem, so try the above sites first if you're new to it. They provide easy & free online shopper training and you can try several types of shops before getting credentials. 

Tip: For love-it mystery shoppers, graduate to the Volition site and Job Board which is popular industry-wide with companies and shoppers actively looking for shopper gigs as well as useful tools and tips. 

Tip: Professional certification is not required for most mystery shops, but can be helpful in some cases to get preferred assignments. If you decide mystery shopping is for you, professional (paid) industry association membership and certification options are found at the National Association of Mystery Shoppers web site.    

Bailout Banks Behaving Badly: Ode to My Car

First Person: I'm Pre-Approved For an Auto Loan But I'm Keeping My Old Car

sxc.hu/thoursie

I received an unsolicited credit offer to buy a car, but I'm broke, underemployed, and $42K in debt...   Read More

As much as I want and need a new car, I was amazed to receive this snail mail credit offer because of...well, being broke and all...how in the heck did I get pre-approved???

Writing the article was fun because it just seemed so absurd that a bank would do that and really -- how mean is it to offer a sparkly, brand new car to someone that can't afford it? 

Then, the more I thought about my old car (and recent repair bill that I couldn't afford either), I remembered one of my favorite karaoke songs...or I should say, karaoke performances...

A group that I used to work with were karaoke fanatics and would go to local Orlando karaoke bars once or twice a week. Now mind you I can't sing at all, but I went along a few times just because they used to rave about one lady who's lone karaoke stage song was  Adam Sandler's 'Ode to My Car'. It was said to be hilarious! 

Not familiar with the song, the group emailed a download to me to take a listen to Adam Sandler's original version before my karaoke bar initiation. It was hilarious, but also contains a heavy dose of the 7 dirty words...  The lady who did the 'Ode to My Car' karaoke was a fun, 60-something, almost-ready-to-retire sort and did do a ROFLMAO version.

So I had a brilliant idea to mention the song in the article, because my old car is almost as awful as Adam's tribute old car. So I went looking for a link to the song and things just got better...

Found a link on YouTube with an Adam Sandler live performance of it from an HBO special. Even better, the year of the performance was the same as the model year of my car!!!

How perfect was that! 

So, I wrote the last line of the article "I'll keep my old car...that's as old as this Adam Sandler 'Ode to My Car" video. 

But it didn't make it past the editors and was frickin deleted...sigh...