- Nothing New Challenge - For an entire month, my family will buy nothing new. This includes clothes, toiletries (I’ll make my own from products I have on hand), paper products, furniture, etc… It does not include food. Obviously.
- Dollar a Day Challenge - For an entire month, I will spend no more than $1/day per person for food. We are a 3 person family, so our food budget for the month will be approximately $90.
- Coupon/Sale Challenge - For an entire month, I will only buy things that are on sale or that I have a coupon for. Sale items must be at least 50% off and the coupon’s value must be at least 50% off the purchase price.
- Free Product Requests - I will request free products from 50 companies, by e-mailing them and telling them I will feature their product on my blog. I may not get anything from it, but it never hurts to ask!
- Work From Home Income - I will pursue work from home opportunities such as tutoring, teaching private voice and piano lessons, selling artwork, taking online surveys, completing HITs for Amazon Mechanical Turk, etc… I don’t want to spend more than 2 hrs. per day doing this kind of work, and I’ll do it all while my baby is asleep.
- Home-made and DIY it up - Replace most store-bought products with home-made or DIY versions.
- Sign-up for Newsletters, Samples and Giveaways - Free stuff abounds on the internet. All you have to do is find it, and ask for it.
- Swap skills with friends - I have skills and weaknesses. I have friends who are skilled in my weak areas and weak in areas where I have strengths. The thought occurred to me the other day that we shouldn’t pay strangers to do stuff for us that our friends could do for free. I’ll help you out if you help me out. That’s the way they did it back in the day.
- Learn new skills - My husband should never have to pay for a haircut. I know that I can learn how to do that from the internet.
- Sell stuff I don’t use/need - I’ve got a few items lying around the house that I really don’t ever use. Off the top of my head these include: a Nokia N810, a flat screen computer monitor, several size 12 Express pants and suiting jackets, prom/bridesmaid dresses, and books I never plan to read again. If I’m lucky, all of this stuff combined will bring in $100 - but every little bit counts!
What do you think? Is there one you think I should try first? Have any other ideas?
