I just got a $1,000 gift card in the mail! It cost me less than $50, and took about 5 months, but it’s here! I’ll post all about how I got it in a few days. I just wanted to share how excited I am!!

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If you’ve ever had a horrible experience at a store, or a wonderful experience at a restaurant, you may have wished you could have told the owner of the store to let them know exactly what was going on.

The good news is - there are people who do exactly that! This is called Mystery Shopping.

Mystery Shopping is where you get hired to go into a store/restaurant/etc. and complete a shopping experience, and then tell the mystery shopping company about your experience. It’s called Mystery Shopping because you don’t tell the store or restaurants who you are, or what you are doing. It’s completely undercover. The company will tell you where to go, what to do, and what to watch out for.

What are some things you could be doing? Well, at a restaurant shop, you would probably note how long it takes from the time you ordered to get your meals. Did you get everything you asked for? Did they server check back with you? You would have to report things like that. When you get back from a shop, you will usually fill out a survey (which you can see before you go so you know what to look out for), and then usually give them your receipt as proof you were there.

With Mystery Shopping you usually get a free meal (if a restaurant shop) or product (at a retail location). Sometimes you also get paid on top of it, depending on how complicated the shop is.

It’s a lot of fun, and you can make sure that retail stores and restaurants are treating their customers like they should be.

Here is a list of mystery shopping companies you can join, all for free.

Remember…you should NEVER pay for a list of mystery shopping sites. These companies are paying you!

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I know I have mentioned in the past that I take surveys, but I haven’t really shared what kinds I take, or where I find out about them.

There are all types of surveys, for all types of reasons. Sometimes a company will want to see what people think about a possible new product idea, and see if people are interested. Other times companies want to know what you think about their current products. Sometimes a company will want to know if something they have designed is liked, and will want people to test it. For all of these reasons and more, there are many companies willing to pay people to find out their opinions.

I enjoy taking surveys, because I love to give my opinion on different products. Sometimes a company will even send me a product to try out! That’s the most fun. You can either get entries into a contest, points, or cash for doing surveys…and most are really short.

In the past, I have gotten cash, points, gift cards, and a bunch of different products to test. Those were the most fun!

Will you be able to quit your job and just take surveys all day? No… sorry! But it is a great way to earn a few extra dollars every now and then.

Here is where on our site we have a list of survey companies you can join, so you too can start taking surveys.

Remember, you should never pay for a list of survey companies! The whole point is that you can make extra money from these companies!

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I know a lot of people use Google when they search on the internet, but you might want to try Blingo when you get the chance. It uses Google, so you should get the same search results, but here you have a chance to win prizes.

This will only happen within the first 10 searches you do on Blingo a day, but if you’re going to be doing searches on Google, you might as well win something! By signing up, you can also win something if one of your friends does, so you have even more chances to win.

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One way to save is to make sure that you know where all of your money is. Many times we lose track of some money we are owed and completely forget about it. A lost bank account, a forgotten deposit on an apartment or an unclaimed tax refund may be out there somewhere. The good news is that many times it is as easy as typing your name in to see if you are owed any money.

If you go to the website unclaimed.org, you can choose your state, and then search your states treasury to see if you are owed any money. Maybe you moved and someone was unable to get in touch with you. You never know! If you do find your name, you just fill out a form, and they will let you know how to get the money (and how much it is). Since you will be dealing directly with your states treasury department, you don’t have to worry about being scammed, and you will have to pay absolutely nothing in order to claim your money.

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ChaCha.com is a new search engine, where instead of typing in your search and getting thousands and thousands of results to sift through, you get a real person guiding your search. They will help you find exactly what you are looking for! For some, it is much easier then going through result after result, trying to find what you want. The best part is, you can talk to your guide while they are searching for you, to help make sure you get exactly what you are searching for.

Besides being a cool new website, why on earth am I talking about it on a money saving/making blog? Simple. Guess where the guides come from? While they currently are not accepting any new guides since they are now in beta, they used to accept guides (and I’m sure they will again!) who will guide these searches and get paid to do so.

It’s a really great way to earn a little extra income. You train in certain searches, so you choose what you know a lot about, and what you like. Then, you train to become better at finding these results. Once you are trained, you get paid to help people search for what they are looking for! The best part is, as a guide, you can go and work whenever you have the time. No having to devote a certain amount of time a day, no telling anyone what your hours are. It’s a great way to pick up a few dollars whenever you need to. Currently you can get a debit card to get the money whenever you want, but it looks like as of the end of the month, you can get the money put right into your own bank account.

While they are not accepting new guides right now, if you are interested in becoming a guide, either email me or leave a comment here. I will send you an invitation to become a guide once it is available again.

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In my last post I mentioned that there is another way besides taking surveys that I was able to get some free products to try. I am a part of Bzzagent, which is for people who enjoy creating word of mouth advertising. You can sign up for different campaigns, based on your demographics, and they will send you a product to try. They usually also send you coupons to give to others as well! They know that most people love to talk about the products they enjoy, and the ones they don’t. So they send you the products, you try them, and then tell everyone you know about them! There is nothing sneaky about it, you’re more then welcome to tell people you are a part of Bzzagent, and that you are creating a buzz for the product. Just be honest whether you like it or not. You can then report into them how the buzzing went, and in some cases you get points. You can then use those points to get different rewards…so it really is a great program! The way I see it, I normally tell my friends and family about all the products that I try that I like (and dislike), so it’s a lot of fun to get to try new stuff for free while I’m doing it!

Right now I’m currently Bzzing:

Pledge Duster Plus (really enjoying that one!), Egg Creations (I’m still trying to find out what grocery store has it so I can try it, but I have plenty of coupons to share with others who are interested!), Full Sail (a really cool college where you can learn things like animation, music, film, and much more), “The Power of Nice” (A book that shows it does pay to be nice in the business world in order to get ahead), Zinio (a program that lets you read your magazines online), and am currently waiting to receive my Sonicare Toothbrush (which I am REALLY excited about, as I have heard that it is amazing and cleans your teeth a lot better then a manual or battery powered toothbrush.)

Usually I only have 1-2 campaigns going on at a time, but I guess they are very busy right now! I am enjoying telling others about the products though, so it is fun for me!

I have reported most of my buzz, but not all of it yet, as it’s easier to talk to friends about it then to write it up. I will report the rest of it though. On top of all of that (which really is enough!) I recently used some of my points to order the Aquis Adventure Microfiber Towel, which helps dry things faster. I think this will be great to bring on vacations. But that was just a bonus on top of the rest of the program. If anyone enjoys telling others about products, and sharing your opinions, I really do recommend this.

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