Budgets aren’t exactly fun, hot, or sexy. After Christmas budgets are especially cringe-worthy. While being an adult means many great things, such as going out to eat simply because you don’t feel like cooking, going to concerts and plays because a live show is always better, or taking last minute trips to visit friends because you can. Unfortunately, being an adult also means paying for all these lovely things on your own. What happens when you are a salaried employee who is exempt from overtime pay? Or you are a stay at home parent? Or you don’t have reliable transportation to get you to a second job? What if you don’t really want a second job?
Besides the common sense advice to not spend more than we make, what are our options? Here are a few ideas that we’ve found that I’d like to share. I’d also love to hear from you – what do you do to earn that extra cash?
Take on freelance work. There are a variety of trusted sites where it is possible to earn money for projects as simple as data entry or complex as being a virtual assistant and many options in between. Freelancer is a great one. The projects are listed in a way that can be sorted and filtered by skill set. I understand Upwork is great, too, but have not tired it.
Be a secret shopper. I love this one, but it took a while to find a company that was worth the energy (and not going to flood me with spam). BestMark has been wonderful. They reimburse for some things in addition to paying for the secret shopping. For example, I could take my car to an dealer identified on their list for an oil change, and they reimburse for the service and pay for the shopper report that is submitted, too. Not too shabby, right?
Consignment shops. OK, not a huge amount of money to be made here, but I have found that at the right shop, it is possible to get more cash for unused items than the possible tax credit. We have enjoyed this one while we start the process of purging our home of things we don’t use in preparation for the move to a sunny location. Talk to the shop manager to find out timing of what sells best and when. They appreciate receiving merchandise when it is more likely to sell fast. If inventory isn’t moving, it is discounted, and that isn’t as helpful for the old budget.
Ebay and other online selling sites. Speaking of the purging process, we’ve had some very good luck with eBay and even the selling pages on Facebook. We are in awe of how much stuff two people with no kids can have in their home. The goal is to basically stage each room to show full potential to buyers. As we look around, it seems this process will take years. Timing is key here, too. eBay provides the ability to see what similar items have been listed at, their selling prices, and selling dates. This is also helpful in establishing a realistic opening price for each listing.
Credit cards. To clarify, I do not mean to suggest that this is a source of spending cash. Rather, find a card with a great points program that can be used for free airfare. The key for this to be successful is two fold: use this card for everything possible and pay it off every month. Yes, this is where the whole spend money at a lower rate than it is earned advice comes in. Balances carried from month to month add up quickly, and negate any benefit of free or discounted airfare. It takes hard work, discipline, and focus to get that balance down to zero the first time, but once there, it feels great and is more manageable to maintain.
Loyalty programs. Another one that isn’t earning money, but valuable nonetheless. We have used hotels.com for years and love it. Once in a while we are able to use credit card points for free airfare and cash in free nights from hotels.com for a practically free vacation! Those were glorious trips – beverages, food and SCUBA diving were our only expenses.
Coupons and discount cards. We have no shame when it comes to using coupons. When saving for a trip, every dollar counts! We use a loyalty program at our local grocery store that allows us to load coupons to their member card, as well as using mfg coupons, too. I’m far from an extreme couponer, but I am able to save quite a bit doing this. As for discount cards. There is an awesome one for Cabo San Lucas: The Cabo Passport Card. This thing is gold. With it, we get 2 for 1 meals, 50% off SCUBA diving, discounts on excursions like whale shark snorkeling, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are always qualifying criteria to keep in mind. Most places do not include drinks in the 2 for 1 meal discount, but they are very reasonable priced anyway. We bought one and it paid for itself after we booked our first day of diving. Even if we lived in Cabo, we’d want to always have this card.
So there you have it. Our secrets to being able to afford annual vacations. Some call us cheap, but that’s OK. Being able to take a sunny vacation each year is more important to us than trying to keep up with other peoples’ shopping habits.
I hope this was helpful, and would love to hear what has worked for you!
Traveling Team Fischer 