Frugal Finances

Pinecone Research is one of the better survey companies around. They are accepting new applicants. Unlike other companies, Pinecone gives you $3 for each survey you complete. It’s not a lot but if you are on a super tight budget or just looking for ways to make a few extra dollars, this is an easy way.

When they open up signups they are usually searching for a particular demographic. I believe this time they are looking for Hispanics. Hopefully you fit the bill. Sign up HERE and don’t delay! As soon as they fill their panel quota, they will close again.

Good Luck!

I’ve mentioned National Consumer Panel in the past but I wanted to let you know they are accepting applicants again! Go HERE to see if you qualify.

If you are accepted as a panel member you will be sent a small hand-held scanner. When you return from a shopping trip you will scan all the bar codes of everything you purchased. Once a week, you’ll transmit this information to Nielsen. The perk is that you’ll earn points which can be redeemed for a variety of items from the Nielsen Gift Catalog.

I’ve heard good things from people who have stuck with the program but keep in mind that this type of thing isn’t for everyone. If scanning items isn’t up your alley, they also offer surveys you can take to earn points.

If you missed my original post about the National Consumer Panel you can read it HERE.

Good Luck!

In case you missed this before, I wanted to let you know that Synovate is looking for panelists again! If you’re looking for a way to make money from home this may be a good fit for you. Synovate is a legitimate survey company that is currently open for applicants right now. You won’t get rich doing surveys from home but it is a good way to earn a few extra dollars and participate in product test panels.

I don’t normally publish money making opportunities unless I have personally scoped them out. Synovate is a reputable company and one of the top survey sites available. I haven’t signed up with Synovate myself but I’ve heard lots of good things about them from readers and other bloggers.

They typically only open the panel for a few hours at the beginning of the month. So you may want to jump on this opportunity before they close the panel.

Other money making ideas: Toluna Opinion Panel and My Survey are both accepting new panelists.

Good Luck!

You may remember over the summer I posted about the Savings.com #SavingsPledge and how they hoped to save America $1 Billion. In case you missed it, you can read all about it and it’s not too late to make your own pledge!

For this pledge, I teamed with Savings.com and the other 2011 Deal Pros and shared my goal of saving $100 per week or more. My goal was to save as much money as I could thus summer and fall. We built a new house and I wanted to be able to bring enough cash to the “closing table” so that our mortgage would be identical or less than the mortgage in our old house.

Right now I’m at Save Up 2011, the conference for Savings.com Deal Pros. They asked us to share today our “Savings Story” and really it’s perfect timing. We close on our new house Monday. So I know exactly how much our mortgage will be. And, drum roll please…..It’s within $50 of our old mortgage. Of course mortgage rates plummeting last week did help my cause some, but we’ll ignore that and I’ll pat myself on the back for all my hard work this summer.

Whether you have a big savings goal or a tiny one, it’s always exciting when you reach the end and see how close you came to meeting your goal. In my case, I didn’t quite make it. However, even at $50 over my goal, we are still $175 less per month than my husband’s original projections. So I’m pretty proud of myself and know that it will help our family immensely to not spend an additional $175 each month on our mortgage.

Savings.com has some neat things planned for the Deal Pros at this year’s conference and they are hoping to involve everyone in all the incredible things happening. Here’s how you can participate too.

• Check out more Savings Stories from the 2011 Deal Pros. One of them might just inspire you to take the next step.

• RSVP for the Live Streaming Save Up Event Today and you’ll be eligible to win an iPad 2!

• Learn all kinds of fabulous tips in the Live Streaming Save Up Event beginning at 2:15CT this afternoon

•     Grocery Coupon Class
•     Live Q&A with the Deal Pros. Ask questions via Twitter using #SU11
•     Live Saving Stories

Come join us today! I’d love to see you there.