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We're continuing the 50/50 Challenge and it's taking off! So many goals, so many tips from you.

Money Earning and Savings Tips this Week

This week we continued with 4 more tips to help you save and earn a bit of money on the side.

This week I’ll continue with more posts geared towards getting you closer to your goals. I know that not all of the posts will be applicable to your situation, but there is ideas behind the posts that I hope you can use.

For example, dog walking isn't something everyone can do or wants to do. However is there some errand or chore that your neighbors need help with that they're willing to pay for it? It's about thinking creatively and seeing the gist of the articles, not just the topic on hand.

By the way, if you have a side gig that earns you at least $100/month for a relatively short amount of work, could you please share it? An extra hundred a month can be a big boost for others, including those looking to get out of debt.

Bouncing Ideas With Each Others

My hope is that we each help one another to reach our goals with ideas and encouragement. this week you've been generous with your progress and own tips. I just want to highlight a few of them today:

Heather has put her MyPoints rewards to good use:

I've belonged to MyPoints for years. Mostly, the points I get are for clicking through on the e-mails, so I accumulate very slowly. I've gotten gift cards that I've given as gifts. Most recently, I got $50 to amazon that I used to buy some baby supplies.

Max from Maximizing Money found a way to lower his satellite TV bill and had some tips on getting movies for free:

Where I live now, I pretty much had to get satellite TV or cable just to get good reception for the basic channels, whereas my previous town had great local television just with an antenna. My bill is around $70 per month for Directv, but through their referral program, I've been able to pretty much eliminate my bill for the previous year, and now I'm only paying about $30 per month for it altogether.

When I first started, I had the movie channels and NFL package for free with my account, so that was nice, but now that they're gone, we basically get all of our movies from the library for free, since they get new releases right away and you can get an unlimited amount of movies at one time.

If you use VISA Kevin has discovered how you can get a 2 for 1 deal on movie tickets:

Also, periodically with a VisaSignature credit card, you can get a 2 for 1 deal on Fandango on Fridays for showings on that same Friday: https://www.fandango.com/visasignature

KrantCents gets half off as well on movie tickets:

I buy group discount tickets ($6 each) for movies where full price is approaching $12. My wife and I still enjoy an occasional night out with friends with the movie on a big screen in a theater.

I also want to point out that absolutely fantastic goals and plans you've created for yourselves. I never imagined how big some of you would go. Sam is shooting for $10k and Julie is using the challenge to her balance working at the office and being a first time mom.

I wish all of you the best, please leave a comment with progress- I love to see how you're doing!

Progress on the 50/50 Challenge

How are you doing with the 50/50 Challenge? Are you ahead or behind your schedule? What area to you need help with? Do you have a question or topic that you'd like me to cover this week?

Photo Credit: Alan Cleaver

About Elle Martinez

Elle Martinez helps families at Couple Money achieve financial freedom by sharing tips for reducing debt, increase income, and building net worth. Learn how to live on one income and have fun with the second..

5 comments add your comment

  1. I wanted to do a quick update on my status!! Things have been going very well. Here are a few things that I have implemented over the past week!

    1) I have started cloth diapering. It is a little more work, but well worth it, if it allows me to be home more with my son!! Now I just have to get my husband on board…he is getting there!

    2) I have been able to pick up a couple of shifts at the office, and they are even allowing me to bring the baby for a few hours. This allows for some extra income!

    3) We (or should I say) my husband is not eating out…he has been packing lunches everyday and I help when I can! This is great because the month is almost halfway over and we have only spent about $10 on eating out so far this month! Where as last month at this time, we had spent almost $75!!

    4) I have also started to make Christmas gifts (not something on my original goal list) but I came up with this.Making gifts allows for a personal touch at half the cost. I picked up some clearance items from last Christmas and odds and ends and started making personalized gift baskets!

    5) We were also able to snag some discounted dinner certificates from Restaurant.com. This allow for some cheap dates at local restaurants!! If you get a coupon code you can snag even cheaper prices!!!

    6) We also purchased some draft guards for our doors and windows. We are hoping this will help to decrease our heat/electric bills!

    So far it is going well and we are excited to see how everything continues! Thanks for the opportunity!

    • Wonderful gift ideas- being crafty is a wonderful talent to have. Best wishes on the rest of the month; can’t wait to see the next update 🙂

  2. WEEK ENDING 11/13/11 $539

    ADMINISTRATIVE/WRITING: 11.11.11 $300
    I’m handling various administrative duties for my husband’s business. This has not only brought income to my side of the equation, my marketing, etc. has captured several jobs for him! If I accounted for the work I’ve captured for his business it would be several times my $1000 goal in this month alone!

    EATING OUT: SAVINGS $50
    Cutting back on eating out is huge. I’ve been taking my son out to eat once a week. I’ve cut back to twice a month. The other two weeks I’ve made homemade meals and we picnic. I’m not even accounting for our savings we reap because I’m making my husband’s lunch. This alone would add up to over $200 a month. I’m holding this to my personal savings/income.

    HOMEMADE CAT FOOD: SAVINGS $4
    I was doing this for years and then slacked off last month.

    YOGA AT HOME: SAVINGS Month of November $125
    I love my yoga class but have cut back until my income is at a higher level. I still take a Pilates class and do yoga at home with my husband.

    CRAIG’S LIST SALES BONUS PAYMENT 11.11.11 $60
    I posted and managed a listing for my stepdad and he gave me $60 from the sale which was an unexpected gift!

    Sorry for the duplicate posting Elle . . . not sure where you would like the updates . . .

    • I usually see all new comments when I login in, so no worries on where you want to post your updates Darris. SO happy that you’ve done a fantastic job finding ways to earn and save money. Happy you got a bonus from helping your step-dad.

  3. 1) The Dow Jones is down about 300 points since the other week, and I actually am a super conservative 96.5% cash now! I HOPE I am wrong, and that the markets have a santa clause rally into the close. I really do. The mother fund is up 10.8% YTD vs. the S&P 500 -2.5%. I’m happy to lock in gains and lose outperformance if I’m wrong.

    2) I have failed completely in not spending money in November. Just spent $795 on new brakes and a battery for Moose before the snow season! This is a “must”.

    3) Have a large client for the Yakezie that is getting back to me with his selection by end of month.

    Sam