As a single mum with young children that weren’t at school yet (last year, 2019) and trying to grow a new business (ShareAbode) there were often times that I would struggle financially. I was committed with any spare time to ShareAbode because I believed in its mission – still believe in its mission, I’m still here! And I didn’t feel that putting my children in daycare 5 days a week and getting a full time job was the best solution for me or my children. I wanted to experience their childhood with them and with my calculations getting a full time job compared to a part time job, some online work and some Government assistance, I wasn’t really better off from a financial standpoint being employed.
I pieced together a few things that would give me some money that I could do around my kids routine and still left me time for creating ShareAbode. One of them was admin work remotely which was scheduling their social media posts every week and giving them a report of how well their account was doing. I did this manually at first, but then discovered Later which is a scheduling app and account analyser so that really helped me, which helps them. I dedicated 4 hours once a week (that was a daycare day for my children) to scheduling and reporting. Later cost me $19.00 per month and saved me hours of work. I was paid $200.00 per week by the company. This money was dedicated to paying two days of daycare for my daughter
I also did data entry (from home) for another company which took about 2 hours a week and they paid me $85.00 per week. This money was dedicated to paying the third day of daycare for my daughter (she only did three days).
I rented out a room in my home for $200.00 per week also. This went directly to contributing to paying off my mortgage.
I also did surveys online. Which is what this post is about. I still do surveys and still rent a room in my home out. These two things help me to stay on top of expenses whilst I grow continue to grow ShareAbode to a point where it can generate revenue.
WHEN I DO SURVEYS
Surveys work really well because I always have my phone on me, it doesn’t require HUGE amounts of brain-power so I can multi-task it (watch tv, walk the dog, run on the treadmill) and I spend a bit of time waiting, as most parents do, for kid related things. I wait at school pick ups, I wait at the skatepark, I wait at swimming lessons, I wait for them to be dropped off for hand over with their father and I wait for them to finish the bath.
I also wait for my personal things, such as doctors appointments, hair appointments, chiropractic appointments, in line at the shops and various other things. All of this time adds up and if your doing something constructive with that time then it can be a valuable use of time. It’s certainly more constructive than scrolling social media mindlessly.
In terms of how much time I put into doing surveys. I get an hour, 3 days a week when my son is at the skatepark, I get an hour, two days a week when my daughter naps (she does daycare there day a week), I get about 30 minutes a day while the kids are having a bath and I get an hour almost every night while my kids watch TV after homework, dinner and bath time. Thats around 8 hours a week over 5 days I spend on surveys.
THE SURVEYS THAT I DO
1. Swagbucks – They have so many different ways you can earn: from cashback, surveys, referrals, they have bonuses, competition and much much more.
2. MyOpinions – is my top earner and favourite. They only give you rewards for surveys in the form of money. They have instant cash out to Paypal. They do have a tiered bonus every week, up to 15% of your earnings.
3. Pureprofile – is another favourite. They do cap you on how much you can withdraw like $70 every 60 days and doesn’t matter how much you make. Essentially you make $420 a year only through this.
4. Prolific – Good academic surveys, really short. But you either have to get an email from them or have their website constant open to check for new surveys.
5. Respondent – They have a big payout. But I rarely get any surveys. They don’t offer them as frequently.
6. Octopus – They will notify you of new surveys to your email, not often but they are worth being on it to get the surveys.
7. ValuedOpinions – They are pretty good, another favourite of mine. Surveys anywhere from $0.75 – $4.50 and obviously the higher amount the longer the survey.
8. LiveTribe – These guys are points based so you get certain points for certain surveys and those points you cash on for certain things like gift cards for Coles, JBHiFi etc. The surveys here get snapped up pretty quick so you have to hurry to get the,m.
8. Toluna – These guys are the same as above. These are usually quite lengthly but seem OK so far.
The way I do it, I go to my email and click the link of each survey thats come through and do them and if I have enough time I can browse them individually and do more of whatever is up for grabs. I work my way from the top of the email (most recent to least) as there is more chance of them being valid and still taking answers by the time I get to them.
THE LOGISTICS OF IT
I would recommend Googling the ones above and ensuring you create a seperate hotmail or gmail account and use that to register for each one. It just keeps things organised and away from your personal or work email.
I would then recommend you get the app or mobile friendly option for the particular email provider on your mobile. This helps because everytime a survey that’s available comes in, your mobile dings to let you know. You can do it then and there or allocated some time per day to do it. I usually work my way down the email (as I do allocated time) from the most recent to the least recent because I’m likely to have the most recent surveys emailed to be still open and accepting answers. If I finish them all and still have time, I’ll head to my favourite ones and s was they have available and do that for a while.
THE MONEY SIDE OF IT
I average around $7.00 – $10.00 a day depending on the survey reward which can be anywhere from $0.75 – $2.50 (a $2.50 survey reward would take about 20 minutes to do). But that all adds up. If your doing 5 surveys (some long and some short) and getting about $7 – $10 a day then thats probably taken around an hour and a half.
Here is my schedule and what I bring in:
My son goes to the skate park for an hour 3 days a week. I average around 6 surveys in that hour, which is around $8.00. Thats around $25.00 for just sitting in the car three day a week.
I do about 3 surveys while they are in the bath each night for 30 mins. Thats on average $3.00 for 30 minutes x 5 nights = $15.00 approximately.
I do about 3 surveys while they watch TV at night for 30 mins. Thats on average $3.00 for 30 minutes x 5 nights = $15.00 approximately.
Add them together and that’s $55.00 per week give or take a few dollars.
Obviously that seems like a small amount per week, but in those times I would be scrolling social media mindlessly and not making that so, I’m being effective with the spare time I have.
Over the course of a month it brings in anywhere from $200 – $250.
Every month my mobile bill is $114.00, my Internet bill is $69 and my Netflix is $12.00 so thats $195.00 each month due. The money made from the surveys per month goes to those bills. This means I then save that $195 out of my pay which can be allocated to my water, sewerage and rates bill which I get very 3 months at $650 (and thats a big amount in one go). The savings I have that goes towards the $650 which I saved from NOT taking out of my pay for the above bills is $585 so I’m only putting in around $65 to make up the difference.
Every cent counts and so does your time.
