Is It Really Worth My Time?

This post was originally published on August 19th, 2010.

You’ve been reading about ways to make money on Thrifty Texas Penny for a few weeks now. You may be thinking “I don’t want to spend my free time clicking through e-mails and looking up coupons just to save a few bucks”. If you truly don’t want to, then don’t. No one is trying to force you to. But many of you are willing to work at a job paying $10 an hour when doing the simple things I talk about here can actually pay more than $10 an hour. Consider these things before deciding against doing something to earn or save money:

1. If you spend 1 minute a day to click through e-mails that will pay you about 15 cents, you’re making $9 an hour. You never thought it added up to that much did ya?
2. Some things- like Swagbucks– don’t take any extra effort to earn. You just have to sign up, do your normal searches, and cash out. The few minutes that it takes to sign up and cash out once your searches have won you $5 in Amazon GCs compares to a rate of about $75 an hour.
3. You may not typically use the item that is on super sale or even free, but by trying it out, you aren’t spending money to purchase your usual product, ie. saving money. A couple of free products can save anywhere from $3-$20.
4. You can donate any products that you don’t use, so that others can benefit too.
5. If you do these things while watching TV, listening to music, or some other activity you’d be doing anyway, then you’re not really spending any time to do it, so it’s more like free money.
6. I can spend an hour printing and cutting coupons and easily save $15 or more (again for our family this is comparable to $21.42)
7. You can wait around for a get rich quick scheme, or you can put your skills to good use when you have the time, because a little bit every day can go a long way!