photo credit: Graham and Sheila

This past week was full of economic news, from the passing of the stimulus package to my home state of California finally passing a budget. How it took over 16 weeks to pass a budget is unbelievable. Unfortunately, myself and millions of Californians will be receiving an IOU from the state for our 2008 tax refund. My family took steps to alter our withholding so that we will not receive as much of a refund next year. Have you completed your 2008 tax return yet? Below are a few articles I’ve read this past week and wanted to share. Enjoy.

Becoming Debt Free wrote Bonus or Compensation – When Did The Line Get Blurred? Do you expect to earn a bonus this year or do you consider it extra money? When I worked for an investment firm most employees expected to receive a bonus. We would set our family budget for our salary only and the bonus went directly to our savings account. Now that times are tough for Wall Street I wonder how many workers are going to adapt. Hopefully they have set aside money in an emergency account.

Gather Little By Little wrote In the event I die – Information for my family and took the time to document important passwords and papers for his family. I wonder how many guys have documented user names and passwords for paypal, ING Orange, and even email in case of an emergency?

Money Ning wrote Counter Intuitive Way of Lowering Your Spending. If you are a saver, do you ever feel the urge to spend?

A Good Husband wrote How To Fight Over Money and really nailed most of the ways we can fight with our spouse about money. Although, I’m sure if a couple hit the lottery they could still find something to debate over money expenditures.

All Financial Matters wrote JLP’s Kids and Household Chores Experiment and put together a daily checklist for his family chores while his wife worked extra hours. Do you utilize a checklist for your families household chores? Has it been successful?

My Super-Charged Life wrote How To Be An Awesome Control Freak – Results May Vary . Do you know anyone that is a control freak at work? Makes for an interesting week and you can’t wait for Saturday.

Almost Frugal wrote Is a Broken Dishwasher an Emergency? She has a couple options including washing dishes by hand. My vote was to look on Craigslist or a newspaper for a good inexpensive used dishwasher. What would you do?

Mighty Bargain Hunter wrote Real estate: Asset or liability? Is your castle merely a tax write off or do you consider it a form of real estate investment? With housing prices falling more than 40% in our community, is now the time to think about a condo or town home for positive cash flow?

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photo credit: ojbyrne

I recently had a reader email me and ask if I had any ideas how runners can enter a race or marathon for free. Running or jogging is certainly a frugal sport and can provide a wonderful workout for the price of a pair of shoes. But, if you are interested in competitive races or marathons, the costs can add up quickly. Whether it’s the registration fees or the cost to travel to the event, races can be costly. Below are some free ideas as well as money saving tips for runners.

When my wife and I were first married we would enter 5k and 10k races around the bay area for both exercise and as a way to have a fun day trip. We had a friend who was working as a volunteer for the Bay to Breakers and told us we could volunteer for a few hours after the event and we would have our entry fee paid and receive a free shirt for the race. A beverage company was looking for volunteers to hand out a new sports drink at the end of the race. This sounded fantastic as the fee was $50 for both of us and we would love to volunteer and help out with a fun event. We spent a couple of hours after the race handing out t-shirts and bags with drinks for the runners. Many sponsors want to get a new product or sports drink in front of runners during race day and will pay people to hand them out. This is a great opportunity to market a sports drink to a group of athletes that are thirsty and influential. I think we also received a few bags of the sports drink as a free gift as well for helping out. I would have done it for free since the work was not difficult and the weather was beautiful. What we did get was free admission and a great workout from the run. We then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the booths and tasting all the energy bar and drinks from sports vendors and feeling great from the runners high. The Bay to Breakers was a fantastic event.

What are other ways to receive free entry to a marathon or 10k race? Contact a sponsor of the race and see if you can trade an hour or two for a free registration. You might also contact local sporting good stores or suppliers to see if they need help setting up or taking down tents. Many races are full of corporate and small businesses that need help during the race event. Check craigslist and search for the event by name in the listings. You will probably find companies looking to hire people part time for the race. A couple hours of easy or light work might be worth your time to cover the $40+ entrance fee of most races. Marathons can cost even more and you might even establish a contact that you can utilize each year you enter.

Radio station or store promotions. Check the website or newspaper ad of the race you want to enter and check radio station sponsors. Many radio stations host contents or promotions for race events and you can enter and win a free entry to the race. Many newspapers also run promotions for a free entry and you could have family and friends enter for you. The more that enter, the better your chance of winning.

Last minute business trip or change of plans. Check craigslist a few days or even hours before a race. A racer may have become ill, had a last minute business trip, or can’t compete and is willing to sell or give away a number. Be sure to check race details if you can transfer a number or registration before making any purchases.

What if you can’t find a free entry to a race or marathon? Register early for a race. Many races have a tiered registration process and offer discounts for early registration. As time gets closer to the day of the race, the prices can go up. If you procrastinate and wait until race day you might be paying more money.

If you are passionate about running and races, get creative and contact vendors and sponsors about your next upcoming race. Get on the mailing list of all the races you want to participate in and find a local merchant that you can volunteer. Chiropractors, nutritionists, gyms, and sports shops are active at races and might need help during race day. You could benefit by trading your time for a discount or free race registration. Have you helped volunteer at a local race in your community? Do you have any money saving tips you utilize with your sports activities?

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photo credit: miheco

Have you had a dream of writing or blogging where you write a few articles a week and have the potential to earn a good amount of passive income instead of active income? What is active income exactly? I would define it as a form of compensation where you get paid for your time spent on an activity. Maybe you are paid to work in an office, serve food, or construct a building where you trade a service for a wage. You won’t receive residual payments or passive income from a completed building or a meal you served last week. You would receive passive income if you wrote a cookbook or if you leased the building you helped build. What are some passive income ideas you’ve tried that have turned out to be active income in disguise?

Are you a blogger? Maybe you are an active blogger or thinking about starting a blog. Do you consider a blog to be a source of passive income or active income? I guess you might argue that it’s passive income if you are making money from ads on your site and only writing one article a week. But most bloggers try and post several articles a week, if not daily to create an active community. What happens when you stop writing blog articles? Do you think your income will stop? The same would happen if you left your active job at the office at quit.

Multi level marketing programs. Have you researched or been approached by a friend involved in a multi level marketing programs that sell juice or makeup? Many of these companies offer some great products that millions of Americas use each day, but are they truly passive income opportunities? The brochures to become a representative at these companies might promote certain levels to earn passive income, but does it require active income too? Some programs offer passive income opportunities and others require a fee to join the program. Will you recoup your initial fee through future passive income payments? Will the multi level program require training or classes where you must invest your time?

Gold panning or treasure hunter. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you were walking down a dirt path near a river in California and looked down to notice a 3 pound gold nugget. It’s happened in the gold country, but chances are you would walk for years before finding one. What about gold panning? Gold is valuable, a precious metal, and can increase in value. Yes, gold is almost back to $1,000 an ounce, but it also takes hard work to get it out of the ground and into cash. You might be fortunate to find some gold flakes over the course of a few minutes, but to earn a full ounce it could take days, weeks, or even longer. Gold panning can be fun and you might want to consider it as a hobby before making it a source of active income.

Selling items on ebay. Watching late night infomercials about sellers making six figures drop shipping might make you think of ebay as a source of passive income. Well, for some it might be true, but for many it requires active income. Listing items around your house or for friends will require time and you aren’t paid for future sales without effort. Even if you find a reputable and dependable drop shipper, you still need to spend time listing items and interacting with customers. If you stopped selling on ebay today, would you continue to earn a source of passive income?

Chain letters. These certainly can prey on unsuspecting individuals and offer a way to make fast passive income. Last year I received a letter in the mail with two crisp $1 bills. The letter came addressed in a hand written envelope and even had a hand written return address, but I didn’t know this person. Inside was a canned letter explaining this very complicated system where I was supposed to continue the chain letter and make a million dollars. Sounds like the perfect source of passive income, right? Imagine having letters full of cash coming to my doorstep each day. The letter contained names and addresses of 5 people, of which I needed to send money. The letter asked that I add my name to the bottom of the list and mail it out to 5 friends to repeat the process. If this was done enough times I would earn over $200,000. I googled the person who sent me the letter and found them listed on several sites about pyramid scams. Not that this influence my decision not to participate, but I found it interesting that they had spent a ton of money sending out crisp $1 bills.

In case you are wondering, I have tried many of the methods above to earn passive income and failed. I’m glad I failed because it made me appreciate working hard for my money, but more important, having my money work hard for me. Have you attempted to find a passive income source, only to find out it was active income in disguise?

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photo credit: Graffiti By Numbers

How do I earn free Nike shoes by playing tennis? No, I’m not a ranked tour tennis professional or even a club player. I’m actually a weekend hack that has found a way to cover the cost of shoes while playing tennis. I received an email from a reader of TPD and basically thanked me for my articles and found them interesting. But they had an issue with how practical it is for an average person to invest in passive income opportunities such as real estate or dividend paying stocks. We exchanged emails and this family doesn’t have a lot of money to invest in stocks or purchase an investment condo as they are barely making ends meet. The reader went on to say that they could use a little extra money to pay for baseball cleats for a child’s little league program. I wanted to address her question about finding a source of extra income to cover baseball cleats and maybe a few extra dollars for pants and a uniform. The reader also shared that she was an ebay seller and has sold used clothing, books, and dvds in the past.

This was going to be a fun challenge because I wanted to address this readers question and also share how I have found a way to receive free Nike tennis shoes for the last 3 years. So, how do I earn free tennis shoes? I’ve shared before that I love playing tennis and enjoy the physical exercise it provides as well as being a frugal sport. When I play tennis I often times would find used tennis balls left on the court. One day when I was listing an item on ebay to sell and decided to do an ebay search for used tennis balls. I don’t know if you’ve ever searched for something out of the ordinary on ebay, but it can really be fun. Try it next time you’re on ebay. Any given day you will find 20 or more auctions for used tennis balls and they can range from 18 to 48 cents each. Yes, buyers actually will spend up to 48 cents per tennis ball. Amazing, considering that a can of 3 can cost $2.50 or 83 cents a ball. I’ve sold tennis balls as far away as Alaska. I don’t know the buyer, but I envisioned a group of sled dogs playing with the tennis balls.

I play tennis twice a week on average and in the summer I can get out as many as 4 times. On average I’ll find about 3 used tennis balls each time I play. Look for them under bushes, under tables, benches and under trees. You’d be surprised how many people leave behind tennis balls after they are done playing. Collect them and you could be on your way to a free pair of tennis shoes or some extra cash. You don’t even need to be a tennis player. Next time you’re at a park or see a tennis court, get out a look around for green gold.

For a free pair of tennis shoes I need to collect 200 tennis balls. If I average 3 used tennis balls it would take 67 tennis outings to collect 200. You can also visit different public tennis courts in your city to try and find more tennis balls too.

Once I have collected 200 used tennis balls I would create two separate ebay listings a week apart. Once the auctions close, I have about $42 left after ebay and paypal fees to cover the cost of my tennis shoes. The tennis shoes I’ve purchased the last two years are pretty basic and are the Nike city court shoes for $39.99. Yes, these are basic frugal tennis shoes. I purchase them from Sports Authority and I’ll show you how I save even more money later on.

Sports Authority has a website as well were you can purchase shoes and tennis gear that can be shipped to your house. Currently, they have a special if you spend $99 you’ll receive free shipping. Sports Authority always runs ads in the Sunday paper where you can find coupons for $10 and even $25 off your purchase. I use the $10 off a purchase of $50 or more frequently for my Nike tennis shoes and a case of Penn titanium tennis balls. The Nike tennis shoes are $39.99 and a case of Penn Titanium balls run $19.99 for a total of $59.98. With the $10 off coupon the total cost is only $49.98.

In this example you wouldn’t have to buy tennis shoes but could just keep the money in your paypal account and earn interest or use the money to pay monthly bills. I’m sure you have a $42 bill that you would love to have paid. This isn’t technically passive income because you are spending time and resources looking for the tennis balls. Even though it only takes a few minutes a day to look for used tennis balls, it still isn’t considered a source of passive income or residual income. If the used tennis balls appeared magically at your home, that would be passive. This is a creative way to earn extra money and can be fun to get your entire family involved in finding the green gold.

Let’s have some fun and figure out how many tennis balls you would need to make $100. At 25 cents each you would need to find 400 used tennis balls. You could also get lucky and have someone use the buy it now feature and pay up to 48 cents a ball making it necessary to old find 210 balls. Might sound impossible to collect 400 if you don’t play tennis, but next time you go to the park ask your kids to help you find Easter eggs. Look for fuzzy green Eater eggs and you can turn them into green gold.

What are some creative ways you are earning extra money? Do you have a hobby that pays for itself?

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photo credit: alien_nation

You’ve probably stumbled across ehow as you’re searching on google for searches like money saving tips or how to save money using coupons. I know I have and when I joined ehow I wanted to find friends that have a passion for saving money and making some extra income too. I’ve asked my ehow friends to send me interesting personal finance articles to help give us creative ideas to save money and make some too. Writing for ehow or another content website can create passive income for you. It does require time to create the article, but once written, you will have a source of passive income that can continue to pay each month. If you’ve never used ehow before, it only takes a few minutes to join and it’s free. Be sure to add me as a friend using the link found here. My ehow friends have sent me several personal finance articles and I’ve chosen a small sample of my favorites:

Dkrunner wrote How To Take A Cheap Vacation. Taking local backpacking day trips and picnic lunches with the family is a very frugal type of mini vacation.

Circusmama wrote How to Calculate Electricity Costs for Appliances. This ehow article is very helpful to calculate electricity usage and cut down on vampire power consumption. Figuring out if your old fridge consumes $20 or $50 a month can help your family conserve energy and stretch your utility budget. Most of my appliances are energy star rated, but does that mean they are still efficient? I’m going to run some of these calculations and hope you do as well.

Bella Casa wrote How to Make Extra Money Online and says she’s made $4-5 a week from YouData.com website. I’ve never heard of YouData, but apparently you get paid to watch ads and are paid weekly through paypal.

Cheap Cindy wrote How to Survive The Second Great Depression and shares tips on renting out a room to make extra income. Also, taking public transportation or selling a second vehicle. Selling a second or third car can save money on insurance, gas, registration and even maintenance. If you have a car sitting in the driveway or garage you’ll end up paying more to replace tires or a dead battery.

Moneydoc wrote How to Insure Your Investment Portfolio Value where cd’s are discussed to provide security to a portfolio.

If you write for ehow, be sure to add me as a friend as well.

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