It’s Karen from Frugal Rhode Island Mama back again.  I’m so excited to be featured on the Shop At Home blog again this month!  The last two times I talked about saving money at CVS and Walgreen’s using their “rebate” programs and next month I’ll talk about doing the same at Rite Aid but this month I wanted to move in a different direction since it’s almost the beginning of a new year.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have money set aside to do all your holiday shopping next year?  It would be, huh?  I’d like to tell you about a way you can do this starting today into 2010.  How you ask?  Taking surveys… real surveys… ones that pay you actual cash or gift cards for your opinion.  There are a LOT of real survey company’s out there that want to do exactly that.  Here are a few things to know in order to get started.

1. The first thing I want to point it is NEVER pay to get a list or gain access to a website of survey company’s.  This is a scam to get your hard earned cash.  You can find all the information you need for FREE online in so many places, including my website.
2. Open a different email account to use when you start to join survey companies.  There are several reasons I suggest this.  The most important reason is so that your survey invites will all be together in one place so when you want to access them you can.  Also some companies will email you several times a day so your inbox could fill up fast.  The other reason is for SPAM.  I want to point out that the real, good survey companies WILL NOT spam you nor will they sell your email address.  But unfortunately you may sign up for one you think is OK, but isn’t so it’s better to be safe then sorry.
3. You will have to give your name, address, telephone number and other personal information to the survey companies.  Unfortunately, this will be required especially if you want to get paid but mostly not to waste your time.  They will try their best to match you up with surveys that are fit for you.
4. Once you join a survey company, you’ll need to likely fill out some sort of profile. Some of these can be very in depth and others are not.  Again, this is to match you with surveys in their system.  It just makes it easier if they know your likes, dislikes, family, hobbies, etc.
5. Usually once you sign up you will receive emails asking you to take a quick screener to see if you qualify for the survey.  In that same email, it will usually state how long it should take and how much you’ll make, whether in points or dollars.
6. You will be paid either cash or you’ll receive points.  If you receive points then you’ll be able to cash them in for either cash, gift cards and/or prizes.  Some companies will give you an entry into a drawing on top of or in place of a cash/point payment.   The ones who pay cash with either send you a check or Paypal payment and sometimes you can even choose.

Once you are signed up with several companies, you’ll start to receive a bunch of survey invites every single day.   Now these survey invites are likely screener surveys that will be short and then you’ll either get into the longer survey or you won’t qualify.  Don’t get discouraged if you don’t qualify, you will at other times.

As you earn money or points you can let them build up in your account and then in late summer or early fall request payment and you’ll have money for holiday shopping!  It’s very possible you could have all of your holiday shopping money depending on how many survey’s you take throughout the year.

It’s a great way to earn some extra cash.  It is slow coming so you’re better to leave the money in your account and let it build up for a while and set a goal.  Holiday shopping is a good one, but vacation or a shopping spree is another.

Now that you know all this you probably want to know what companies are the good ones and which ones you should join.   I’ve done all the research for you so if you head on over to my site and look in the Paid Survey Sites Section you’ll see a nice list of each survey company I’ve worked with, my thoughts about them, and even proofs of payment from some of them.  It took me a while to find them all so I’m saving you the work.  It was a bit of trial and error and sometimes I did sign up for some that lead me nowhere and I also found some great companies through friends.  Word of mouth is always great!

The most important thing I forgot to mention is not only will you get paid to take these surveys but you will be able to give your opinion or perhaps tell of your experience with a particular company, service or product.  Sometimes, you’ll even receive products to try out and then give your opinion on.  I like when that happens!  But I especially love knowing that I have an impact on things and what I have to say really matters.   Because when it comes down to it, the extra money is nice but it’s also nice to know that companies want to know what we have to say and they even take it into consideration.

OK, go sign up for some companies and make some Holiday Cash for next year!!! Then come back to ShopAtHome.com and spend it all through there and earn more money back!!