My husband's 2nd job

My hubby wrote this post for my personal blog a couple of years ago and I just have to share it with all of you. He doesn't do this as actively as he used to, but he still recommends it to everyone. So without further ado, here's my husband for you:

I like feeling like I got a good deal; really I like good deals. Just ask Kadie, I will take quantity over quality anytime. If I eat at a buffet, I EAT at a buffet, I mean I have to get my money's worth! I like to shop at Deseret Industries. I like to go to yard sales and buy things for really cheap that I probably could have lived without. I love Albertson's 10 for $10 sales. I buy things at Amazon and Newegg and I'm not afraid to spend a half hour googling to find rebates for the products I am purchasing at the aforementioned websites.

But what's the cheapest you can pay? F-R-E-E! So here is my hobby that is usually conducted at odd hours Eastern Standard Time (of course! ;)). I was reading at CNN about how to make some extra money. One of the things it talked about was entering instant win games and sweepstakes online. It gave a reference to a website, so I checked it out. Here is the website Sweeties Sweeps. You should really check it out, especially her getting started links. So to sum it up, she is a stay-at-home Mom who needed to earn some extra income so she started to enter companys' sweepstakes. She has done quite well for herself, mainly because she treats it like a job and is VERY gun-ho about it. (I am not as bad as that...) Anyways, she has some good articles about what sweepstakes and instant win games are and how to get started. I followed her advice and have done fairly well. I spend about a half hour to 1 hour (often during lunch breaks) entering sweepstakes and playing instant win games. Between Kadie and I in the last couple of years, we have won more than $700, free movie tickets, lots of jars of salsa, food coupons, and... this is the best: $1500 in free gas. And my siblings (whom I told about this but didn't take me seriously until I really started winning good stuff) have won just as much. You may laugh and say, that is a waste of time--to some of you your time is more valuable than like $3 an hour (which is probably what it comes out to be); but I probably would have wasted that time in other ways that would equal -$5 per hour.

So Wendy (the lady at Sweeties Sweeps) is always posting about new sweepstakes. She is very good at telling you how to enter, the eligibility requirements, win limits, sweepstakes duration, etc. She saves you a lot of time. I would recommend following her blog. For those of you who don't like to give your name, email address (see what Wendy says about creating a new email just for sweepstakes), phone number, and street address, this post isn't for you; but if you think that information is safe..... just spend..... some time.... googling your name..... But really, in the years we've been doing this, we haven't received one solicitor phone call and maybe only 2 pieces of mail.

Other websites you might find interesting are:

• Sweeties Swag - This is another blog by Wendy about free giveaways from companies.
• Freebies 4 Mom - This is another blog about coupons, rebates, samples, sweepstakes, etc.
• Walmart Free Samples - Walmart's free samples page; there are a lot of samples here, especially for you women!

There are tons of blogs and websites about this kind of stuff so you might be nervous about what is reputable. I have had good success with these 3 sites. However, I will caution you that Wendy & Heather (freebies 4 mom) can still make mistakes. SOOOO before you enter a sweepstakes or request a sample, etc. READ! All companies will have policies and rules. When in doubt, don't do it! There are tons of sweepstakes so if a website looks like it might be fake, just don't give them your information!

Happy Sweeping!