It's Just Money

Is Mona Vie a Scam or the Real Deal?

Someone I know has recently become a distibutor for Mona Vie, a juice which purports to give you increased energy, boost your immune system, rid you of any joint pain, feed the hungry and bring peace to the Middle East.

She has encouraged me to try it and become a distributor, but I have politely declined.  The distributor part.  I tried the juice.  It's tasty.  I didn't really stick with it long enough to see any noticeable health or energy benefits, so I can't speak to that part.

It's sold through a Multi-Level Marketing program.  Let's face it, I'm not enamored with the idea of MLMs.  I pretty much assume they are scams, unless proven otherwise.  There have been too many, from Amway to Quixtar, there were the long distance phone ones from about ten years ago, and the super blue green algae.  Remember all that crap?

So, I did a bit of digging.  Not a lot, but I wanted to know what the fuss was all about.  Online, there were a lot of positive things said about the juice itself.  How many of those online comments were by distributors of the stuff, we have no way of knowing.

I guess I have two problems with this juice:

Points, Miles and Rewards Update for April 2007

Here is the latest update of my points, miles and rewards program balances.

Southwest Airlines:  I have one voucher in hand, and need 15.5 points to obtain another.

MyPoints:  6,903 points.  I earned about 1,500 points this month.  About 6,500 points are required to redeem for $50 gift cards to a variety of places such as Old Navy, Olive Garden, Macys or a host of other optinos.  Not bad for something that doesn't cost any money, and very little time.  If you are not a member, here is how it works.  They send you email offers, and you get 5 points just for clicking on it.  It opens the offer in a new window, which you close immediately.  Occasionally, they give you 50 points for completing a survey or signing up some sort of offer.  And you can earn lots of points for actually making purchases.  If you are not a member, email me.  I can refer 5 members per month, and I get 100 points after you earn 100 points.  I'm at lamoneyguy (at) gmail.com.

Hilton Honors Points:  272,036.  At this rate we'll cover our entire Honeymoon and have points left over.

MBNA WorldPoints:  967.  I had over 25,000 points last month, but redeemed the 25,000 for a $250 check, which I deposited into our wedding fund.

Discover Cash Back Bonus:  $79.05.  Among other things, the Discover Cash Back can be redeemed for Men's Wearhouse gift cards.  I'm thinking about using this for the tuxes for my wedding.

CashDuck:  This is a new one for me.  I signed up at the referral of Tired But Happy.  It's pretty cool.  You sign up for offers, some free, some not, and you accumulate $$$ and "feathers" which allow you to buy stuff.  For every person you refer, you get a piece of their action.  So, click on the duck and be my referral!

Street Fair Business Ideas?

Last weekend, my Fiancee and I took a short trip down to San Diego.  On Sunday we went to the Carlsbad Street Fair.  It sounded like a cool way to spend a Sunday.  We could check out the arts and crafts that people were selling.  Take in the sights and smells of Kettle Corn, Polish sausages and frozen lemonade.  We had no idea how large the Street Fair would be.  According to the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, it is the largest single day street fair in the state of California.

We were surprised by the wares that people were hawking.  There was relatively little arts and crafts.  Rather, most of the goods appeared to be professionally manufactured.  Many appeared to be small business owners.  There were a few community or school related organizations doing fundraisers from raffle to bake sales to a variety of packaged products.  Mostly, it appeared that it was just some local folks spending a Sunday outdoors, making a few extra bucks.

Which, of course, got me thinking...  How can I get in on this?

Am I Selling Out?

About two months ago I received an email from a representative of Interest.com (owned by bankrate.com).  They made an offer to pay me a fixed monthly amount for the exclusive rights to advertise on my blog.  At first the idea rubbed me the wrong way.  I sounded too much like I was selling out to them.  Like they would effectively own my blog, something which is very personal to me.  I was also concerned that they would attempt to influence content, or prevent me from criticizing certain companies, which may be advertisers or other affiliates of Interest.com.

The offer was pretty generous.  Several fold the amount that I was making from Google Ads and the other advertising that I had on the site.  The terms of the contract were not restrictive.  In short, It was tempting.  Ultimately, as I gave it more thought, I realized that I was not only not selling out, but quite the opposite, I am removing all potential conflicts from my writing.  Let me give you an example.

What is the most unusual thing you have done for money?

Now, I don't want this to get out of hand.  If you have done anything illegal, embarassing or what you would consider to be not on the correct side of morality, I don't encourage sharing.  Well, maybe share the embarassing ones, but I guess it depends on the situation.

We have all had those moments of, "Man, I have literally NO money.  I won't get any more money for like four more days."  Or most of us have.  It goes along with, "I'm not just broke.  I'm broke AND maxed out!"

What do you do?  Well, sometimes you suck it up, and stretch out your three packages of top ramen for an extra day.  Maybe you go diving into the couch to see if there are a couple of nickels that you missed last month.  Maybe you have a neighbor who is occasionally willing to pay you to do odd jobs.

A lot of times, you find an way to make a few extra bucks.  I have gotten to this point more than once.  In fact, I have a couple of candidates, but I can tell you my winner.

Do you recycle?

The first money I ever earned was through recycling.  Our cans and bottles would go directly to a separate large trash can, and every few weeks I would rinse out the cans, and crush them down to size.  I was probably 7 or 8 years old, and crushing involved no small feat of stomping.  The cans would go back into plastic bags and in the back of my dad's truck.  He would drive me over to the recycling center, probably spending more in gas than the couple of bucks that I would earn.  But whatever amount the cans yielded would be all mine.

Today, in California, we have something called CRV, or California Redemption Value.  You pay a small amount on every single plastic or glass bottle and can that you buy at grocery stores, liquor stores or warehouse stores.  Most Californians do not even know how much they are paying in CRV, and just assume it is part of the cost of buying their beer, wine or coke.  Actually, it is not a cost at all, but a deposit.  The hope is that you will return the container to a recycling center and get your money back.

I got $10 from MySurvey.com

I'm pretty skeptical of a lot of the "take surveys for cash" sites that you see around the internet.  But I can vouch for NFOMySurvey.  I probably joined about two years ago, and have made around $140 over that time.  Not too bad for mindlessly clicking through surveys while watching TV.  Some of the surveys are even kind of interesting.  They will show pictures of a product about to be released, and ask your opinion of the packaging, whether it is appealing, etc.  A few months later you may see it on grocery store shelves and say, "hey, I took a survey about that!"  Maybe you even influenced how they packaged or marketed the product.

How does it work?

Have you ever been on a game show?

Like a real game show.  We talk all the time about ways to make a few extra bucks, save a few bucks.  But one trip on a game show could make you more money than all the little tips and tricks we discuss daily.  So have you?

I'm not talking about reality TV like Survivor or Great Race.  Yea, you can win a million bucks, but somehow they're just not the same.  I'm talking about Let's Make a Deal, Press Your Luck, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, the Price is Right!  I was on the Price is Right once.  Well, I take that back.  I attended a taping of the Price is Right once.  They didn't tell me to come on down.

So what about you?  Have you ever been on a game show?  Did you win anything?