Monthly Wrap Up : January 2021

On the first Monday of each month, I plan to post our prior month's wrap up, which will include the extra money and gift cards we brought in through various means, as well as the amount of debt we paid off during that month. 

Here are our extra earnings from January:
Crowdtap: $10.00 (Walmart Gift Card)
DScout: $2.00 (PayPal)
Field Agent: $16.13 (Direct Deposit)
MTurk: $0.75 (Direct Deposit)
Pulse Labs: $45.00 (PayPal) - from a study in December
Qmee (check out my review of Qmee): $14.87 (PayPal)
Trendsource: $28.00 (Direct Deposit) - $10 for shop, $18 product reimbursement
Usercrowd: $15.00 (PayPal)
User Interviews: $10.00 (Amazon Gift Card)
Zogo: $5.00 (Target Gift Card)

Totals for January:
Amazon Gift Card - $10
Direct Deposit - $44.88
PayPal - $76.87
Target Gift Card - $5
Walmart Gift Card - $10
Overall - $146.75 ($121.75 cash, $25 gift cards)

January wasn't a bad month at all! I do most of these things during my lunch break, at night, or on the weekends while I'm just being lazy. One of my February goals is to make at least $200 (as a mix of money and gift cards), so I need to step up my game a little more and stop mindlessly scrolling on Instagram and Twitter!

Now for the debt payoff piece. This part was not too successful, unfortunately. I don't count our mortgage in our debt payoff since it's a long-term payment, but everything else we owe a single penny towards is fair game!

The total we paid off in January was $381.27. That's not a huge amount, but I have to remember that it's $381.27 less that we owe people! Plus, that's better than we did during most of 2020, so that's a win! 

I hope everyone has a great February full of extra money and lower debts! 😀

Monthly Goals : February 2021

I will probably say this about every month this year, but I can't believe we're nearly through the month of January! The last Monday of each month around here will be dedicated to posting upcoming monthly goals and reviewing the previous month's goals. We only set one goal in January - to see where we stood on things - and we semi-accomplished that. We listed out a lot of our debts, but I still need to get a couple of totals so we have a complete picture. We did figure out what we needed to catch up on and get straightened up, and we took care of those items! Now, let's look ahead to February! 

February Goals:

1. Make a monthly budget - last year we had some job changes, and we didn't make monthly budgets at all (that I can remember) because we were trying to get our numbers figured out. Now that we have an idea of our consistent take-home pay, we can put some numbers to paper and make a good budget!

2. Finish listing out our debts - this will help us know how to allocate things in our budget, plus it will give us an idea of how long our debt-free journey will last. It will also let us set monthly payoff goals, so look for that to happen for March!

3. Limit our dining out/coffee spending - I know that finishing our budget will help with this, but we have a problem with wanting to grab coffees from the place near our house or getting something to bring home for dinner. Not only is this bad for my weight loss goals, but it's horrible on our wallet! We need to limit both of these things to once a week...or maybe less depending on what our budget says!

4. Make at least $200 from side hustles - $200 is a step up from what I'm on track to make this month, and it feels like a challenge, especially since most of my side hustles are surveys (like Qmee, which I wrote about last week!). I'll have my final side hustle numbers (plus our January debt payoff numbers) next week, but from where we stand right now, $200 will be a bigger amount.

That's it for us for February! I want to keep our goals list short to increase our chances of success. I also know that our journey will likely be slow, but Will and I are okay with that. We'd rather do this slowly and still be able to enjoy life than to burn ourselves out and become frustrated with the entire process. That may not be everyone's preferred method, but we want to do what works for us! 

Do you have your financial goals set for February yet? If so, share them by commenting! 

Monday Monday: Taking Surveys on Qmee

I like doing things to make a little extra money for our family. None of these things are going to make us rich on their own, but when I put them together, they make a decent little side hustle for me without too much effort!

Once a month, I'll post an article called "Money Monday" where I dive into one of those side hustles and tell a little more about it. This month, let's talk about a survey site called Qmee (referral link | non-referral link). 

(Disclosure - if you sign up with my referral link, then the first time you cash out your earnings, you and I will both receive a 50 cent bonus. If you don't want to do that, I've included the non-referral link as well!)

Even though some people may consider them boring, I really enjoy doing surveys! It's interesting to give my opinion about different topics, plus sometimes I get to see product concepts before they're rolled out on a larger scale. It's cool to see something that I've taken a survey about and know that I had a miniscule part in helping it come to life! Also, let's not kid ourselves here; it's nice to get paid in money or gift cards to give my opinion! As Will can tell you, I'm always glad to give my opinion for free, so if someone wants to pay me, that's even better! 😉

Qmee is one of my favorite survey sites because you don't have to have a minimum balance to cash out, and the money is instantly deposited into your PayPal account. It also pays out in gift cards to certain retailers, like Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Target, and Walmart. Those payouts do have a minimum balance, but they also pay out instantly. There is an option to donate your payouts to charity, but I have never done this because I am a horrible person. 

I enjoy Qmee because it gives you an idea of how long each survey will take you. It also sometimes gives you a little "thanks for trying" reward if you've been disqualified for a few surveys in a row. Another thing I like is that if you answer their daily poll five days in a row, you receive an extra 10% on each survey you complete. That 10% adds up! If you have the app, you will get a push notification each day that reminds you to complete the poll so you don't lose your streak. I believe that the company is based in the UK, so the daily poll doesn't reset at midnight in my local time zone, which makes the reminder even more helpful! Qmee also has pop quizzes almost every day that give you 15 seconds to answer a question and 3 cents if you answer correctly. Yes, that's literally just pennies, but it's a nice little extra!

My current dashboard - notice the balance, which was from answering pop quizzes

You may also notice the other sections on my dashboard - cashback and deals. I haven't used those yet, so I can't comment on them, but if I ever try any of them, I'll come back and update this post. Or, if you sign up for Qmee and try them, let me know what you think! Also, if you've used Qmee before, leave a comment to share your experience with it! 

Monthly Motivation: The Organized Money

 Happy Monday everyone! 

(Okay, it may not be Monday anymore. I'm a bit behind on things, but since I'm dating this as it was published on a Monday, we can pretend, right?!?)

There are so many debt-free content creators in the world that it can be tough to sift through everything sometimes. That's why each month I've decided to share a creator who is giving me motivation to stay on this journey, along with a few reasons why I think you should check them out. This month's motivation is The Organized Money (YouTube) (Instagram)

(My husband won't be surprised about this one since I spent a solid two weeks in December binge-watching her YouTube videos).

The Organized Money is the creation of Alaina, who encourages people to organize their lives and their money so they can achieve their dreams. What a tagline!

I first discovered The Organized Money through her planner setup videos, and then I ventured into her financial info. She has solid advice that works for her family (consisting of herself, her husband, and two children) and that can work for other families, like my own. She is extremely organized (she should make that part of her brand...haha), which inspired me to create our monthly money calendar. She is also a certified financial planner, accountant, and author, so she has a wealth of experience and knowledge in these areas. 

She offers free live Money Monday sessions, but since they happen while I'm still at work, I have to catch the replays. She also offers TOM Academy through Patreon, and while it looks like there are some cool features, such as a Thursday night class session and a monthly planner sticker subscription (!!), that's not in our budget at the moment. When that changes, I'll either update this post or write another post about the membership. 

If that wasn't enough for you to check her out, I'll add that she has one of the most soothing and melodic voices that I've ever heard! With all of the chaos going on in the world right now, it's nice to listen to someone who makes you feel reassured and comfortable. Even if you're not into planners as much as I am, you're bound to still find some organization tips and inspiration, as well as money motivation from The Organized Money. Check out her content and let me know what you think in the comments! 

New Year, New Blog, Old Problems

Hi, and welcome to Debt Free McKees! I used to post on a Wordpress site, but after having a ton of issues on Wordpress with my other blog, I decided to come back to Blogger. I'm planning to update some of the articles from the Wordpress site and bring them over here. The rest of the things there can just continue to live their lives like they do now.

Since this is technically a new blog, let's introduce ourselves! We are the McKees (obvs.), and we are on a journey to become debt free. There are three of us in the family, and we also have a dog who thinks he's a human! I'm Amber, and I do the writing and the Instagramming. I'm married to Will (it'll be 8 years in March!), and we have a sassy daughter Char who will be 5 in April. Our human dog, Koopa, will be 8 in March. 

We are the typical American family. We have a car payment, a mortgage, student loan debts, credit card debt, medical bills, personal loans, and a bunch of other little nagging debts that we tend to ignore. We rarely budget and nearly always spend more than we make. We are behind on a couple of monthly bills, and our savings account has a balance of somewhere in the neighborhood of $5. We have gone through being unemployed and underemployed in 2020. We have made horrible financial decisions, and we are ready for a change.

Here's where our old problems come in. We have been motivated, angry, fed up, encouraged, tired, ready, encouraged, and fired up many, many times before. I can't count the number of times both on our other blog, our Instagram, and in real life that we have said that's it and we are done with debt FOREVER. But, here we are in 2021, and not only are we not done with debt - we have taken on even more. Now, we have paid a few things off since I last added up our debts, but unfortunately, we have added more back into the pile. I have no idea what our current number is or whether it is better or worse than the last number I calculated. Will and I are working on getting those numbers together, and when we do, we'll post the total on Instagram, then I'll post more details about where we stand when I write a February goals post at the end of the month. 

We also have to re-evaluate our plan of attack. There are things in the DR plan that we agree with, but there are things that don't make sense to us, especially in 2021, after so many things went haywire last year. We are also hesitant to continue to support someone who has made it known that he feels that hotel employees who have to enforce mask mandates are "$8 an hour twerps" (source). We want to follow the teaching and advice of someone who is more aligned with our family's goals and values, and we would like to find someone who is working at or has worked at some of these "twerp jobs" and still had financial success. In other words, we want to follow real people. 😏 I'd love to hear who inspires you or who has great, practical advice! 

If you made it through my novel, welcome to our new space. I'll be posting here every Monday, and the posts will be a mixture of talking about who is motivating us on our journey, sharing some ways we make extra money or save money, and discussing our goals, numbers, and progress. I'll be posting on Instagram twice a week also, so be sure to follow us there for quick updates. I'm excited about restarting this journey and making actual progress on knocking out our debt this year. If you're a blogger or Instagrammer who is on a debt-free journey or who is already debt free, leave us a comment so we can check out your space. Happy 2021, everyone. Let's make this our best year yet!