Remember when you were able to go months without spending any money at all?
Me neither.
It seems like it was somewhere in my childhood, but…it’s been a while.
We spend money. All the time. That’s life.
Why not make money while we spend? It’s very possible and here are 11 ways to prove it…
Get Smart About Credit Cards
We all know about the credit card rewards out there.
You see the ads in the mail everyday…
“Earn up to 5% cash back on your purchases”
“We offer the highest cash back of any card”
The truth is that nobody offers the highest cash back on everything.
That’s why you need more than one credit card to get as much cash back as possible.
Let me go ahead and preface the rest of this article by saying two things about credit cards:
- If you use credit cards, pay them off fully every month
- There are other ways to make money when you spend
Now let’s get back on track…
Choosing the Right Card
It’s common for certain cards to offer a higher cash back for certain purchases.
The percentages will be different, depending on the category, such as:
- Groceries
- Gas
- Specific stores
- Home improvement
Find cards that match your normal purchases.
If you have a hard time remembering which card is which, just take a Sharpie and write “Gas” or “Groceries” on the card.
Sharpies have lots of uses! Even if you’re a minion…BANANA!
Also, make sure you do your research to find the best cards.
I shop on Amazon.com all the time, so I have an Amazon.com Visa that earns 3% cashback on Amazon purchases. That’s my most used card.
You can simplify the process of finding the right card by using the Wallaby Financial App. It will tell you which card you should use.
If you have multiple rewards programs, you can keep track of them all with Points.com.
Like I said earlier, there are other ways to make money while spending it. You don’t have to use credit cards. That’s only one way. Let me show you the rest…
Get Paid to Shop
There are a plethora of websites that offer rewards for shopping through them.
Basically you will buy everything you normally buy, but instead of going to the store or the website, you go to one of these sites first. You are then linked to whichever website you want to shop with.
For every dollar you spend, you earn a certain amount of cash back for shopping this way.
Then you can use your credit card to make the purchase and get rewarded twice!
Here are the other 10 ways to earn while you spend:
- Swagbucks – Earn money for all kinds of things.
- Ebates – My favorite! Earn while you shop.
- Fat Wallet – Another great way to earn while you shop.
- Memo Link – Earn while you shop here too.
- My Points – A fourth way to earn while you shop.
- My Deals Club – Great coupons and coupon codes.
- Extrabux – Up to 30% cash back through them.
- Shop At Home – Cash back for online shopping.
- Big Crumbs – Yet another cash back shopping site.
- Mr. Rebates – One more cash back website for you.
Final Words
Maybe you were already taking advantage of these rewards. Maybe not. But hopefully now you will.
There are so many ways to earn while you spend, why not take advantage of them all?
Photo Credit: Peasap, Natloans, Veronica, Daniel
The Amazon card sounds good at 3% cashback. If you do have to spend money on certain things then it definitely makes sense to see if you can get some kind of reward for doing so!
Hey Hayley!
My thoughts exactly! 🙂
My wife is the rewards queen in our household, thank goodness because I’m too lazy / busy to learn about the services you’ve written about here. We’ve taken some great trips and stayed in resorts we’d never pay for all because of rewards. We even used points for the hotel where we honeymooned on Key Largo!
Hey Kurt!
Haha yeah we have done similar things. My wife is great with those kind of rewards. I just do the credit cards and general shopping rewards.
I think you pretty much summed up what I’ve been doing haha. Credit card cash back reward is great, gotta love it 😀 In my experience be careful with get paid to shop method — don’t buy the stuff unless you actually need it just because you see that they have cash back incentive!
Exactly! If you don’t need it, don’t buy it! Even if it’s a good deal. That gets a lot of people. I just use the sites that connect to sites I already shop at.
Awesome post man, everyone loves to make money…and if you can do it while you spend, that rocks! I use rewards credit cards, but I’ve got to get into the Ebates stuff.
Hey Josh!
Yeah it took me a little bit to start using Ebates and now I wish I would have started sooner. Lol. It was free money that I was missing out on.
Well, I’m on it now…thanks again!
Absolutely, sir! It’s good stuff!
We do the travel rewards cards. Not as high of a yield, but you get points on everything and don’t have to keep track of the rotations that usually accompany 5% cash back cards. Or maybe I just haven’t gotten the right offers in the mail for those!
Most 5% and up cards do have rotations or a yearly fee. Some of the rotations are easy to keep up with and some are more difficult. I try to keep it simple. Lol
I have a couple of travel rewards cards, which I love. Since getting married is so expensive I have been able to get quite a few points on them.They help me get free flights. I was part of eBates before but haven’t used it since.
Awesome! I love those travel points. As far as the rewards sites, I have to remind myself to use them. Lol
This is the main reason that I do not like to use cash. I feel like I’m missing out on (at least) 1% cash back via my Discover card.
Hey DC!
That’s how I feel. The cash back is out there, so we might as well take advantage of it.
I love making money while I spend money, especially if it’s something I’m going to get reimbursed for- then it’s really FREE money.
Hey Stefanie!
Exactly! My wife has just started doing secret shopping, which is fully reimbursable! I love free money and free stuff! lol
My favorite way to make money while I spend is obviously through credit card rewards. Best hobby ever! =)
Hey Holly!
Same here! I love those credit card rewards, whether in cash, gift cards, miles or stuff! 🙂
I don’t use cc’s so much for cash back as I do to save points for travel, which I guess is two sides of the same coin. 🙂 It’s saved me A LOT of money since I use my CC to pay for things for my business.
Hey Tonya!
I like that we have the options to choose cash, travel rewards or other rewards. Sometimes it’s more profitable to choose non-cash rewards.
I have a SallieMae card which gives 5% cash back at supermarkets, gas stations and bookstores. I also have a 5% off Target card. Those are pretty much the only places I shop anyway so I think I get 5% cash back/off most things. Oh and the bookstore category often times includes Amazon so that’s pretty awesome.
Hey Andrew!
I didn’t realize that it included Amazon. That’s pretty awesome! I have looked at that card and I like that there is no annual fee. The only problem I had with it was that you only get 5% for the first $250 each month. That’s not too bad, but with a family of 6, my budget goes pretty high for gas, groceries, etc. So for me, it’s better to get 3% or so for the whole month.
I actually just use a simple capital one 1.5% cash back on everything. My limit is current 1000 a month so I use it to pay all my bills instead of direct transfers from bank account. My gas, rent, internet, phone, water, and electricity are all on my card. I pay the balance on my credit cards approximately 1-2 weeks ahead of schedule so I never have to pay any interest on anything. I tell capital one to send a check to my banking account every time I reach $100. I use that money to buy stocks.
So far so good.
I like that you use the money to buy stocks. You’re using the cash back for investing. That’s smart!
1.5% isn’t bad for an “across the board” card. That keeps it much more simple than using a bunch of different cards.
I have a 5% card for restaurants, 5% for gas, 3% for home improvement. That’s like 90% of what I buy. The rest at 1%.
They changed the program on my 5% home improvement card, I made like $3K on that one…
You’re card setup sounds about like mine. I’ve had that happen too, where they say “oh wait, this rewards program is too good” and they change it. lol
Hi Kalen bruce,
Making money while spending money is really a good idea. But generally, people never pay much attention to it.
Hey Rajaraman,
True. Most people don’t. More for us. lol