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Just because you*ve made the decision to stay at home as a full-time mom, does not mean that you can*t earn a little spending money on the side. With today's proliferation of work at home, freelance and telecommuting job opportunities, stay at home moms have several options. Along with a wide variety of money-making opportunities, the Internet brings more than its fair share of scams and rip-offs. However, if you use a little practical common sense and are not afraid of a little research, no one's going to take advantage of you.

There is one very basic rule that you should keep in mind at all times. If you remember this, you'll be immune from most of the scams and questionable offers, *If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.* No one is going to pay you $1,500 a week to stuff envelopes so forget it. You are not going to become rich off of 99.9% of what you read, and the other 0.1% takes money, effort and time. Now that we*ve got some basic ground rules, let's look at some options.

Surveys

There are probably hundreds of sites promoting making good money with paid surveys. The question is, can you really make money with paid online surveys. The answer is yes, you can make money on surveys, and you can get free goods and merchandise. However, I don*t know anyone that makes a living out of surveys (although I am sure someone is). Many survey companies offer entries into prize drawings for merchandise or cash. Some of the offers are pretty appealing. However, like any lottery, there are lots and lots of losers for each winner. If you want to take a shot, who knows, you might get lucky. However, for the most part you will be working for free, hoping to hit a jackpot.

There are reputable companies that do pay cash for surveys. It's doubtful that you will make a full time wage, however, it's a nice way to get a little extra spending money. Before you pay money and invest in a list of survey companies, test the water with any number of free survey companies. One tip: Create a separate email account and use it only for survey offers. You may find after applying to a number of companies that you will get a lot of email offers. If you are not careful what company you sign up with, you may find a lot of spamish email and offers that you are not expecting. It's nice to have an email account that you can dispose of, if necessary, or at least use to separate your personal and professional email.

Mystery Shopping

Mystery shopping can be a lot of fun. I*ve enjoyed everything from free meals to free days at Disney as a mystery shopper and gotten paid too! There are a number of mystery shopping services that you can apply to and get a constant list of jobs that need to be filled in your area. The only real skill this takes is to be able to follow directions, and to accurately remember or document (on the sly) specific points of interest and then be able to complete an online form. Attention to detail and timely completion of work are skills that will do you well in this fun job. You can take your spouse out to a free lunch or dinner and get paid for your time to complete the paperwork. Once again, you won*t get rich, but it's a fun way to earn a little money while getting free stuff.

Freelance Work

Freelancing is the ideal job for the stay at home mom because it offers flexibility, the ability to work from home (or where ever you choose) and still earn a decent living to help support your family. In addition stay at home mom's can get additional tax benefits for their families through their freelance employment and so help further reduce the financial strain on their families.

As a stay at home mom, you may have some very marketable skills that companies would like to pay you for on a freelance basis. There are any number of positions for writing, editing, proofreading, web design, graphics art work, research, programming and hundreds of other jobs for which people are willing to contract. You don*t necessarily have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer to proofread and correct text, or to retype material from an imaged file into a word processor.

Freelance work is an opportunity for work at home moms to use their time and talents when and where they want: to bid on work that they*d like to do * when it's convenient for them to work. With a variety of jobs ranging from the data entry to programming, freelance work can consist of either short-term assignments or longer-term engagements. Best of all, you get to pick by bidding on the work you*d like to pursue.

The stay at home mom has so many options available to help add to the family income. If you are not trying to find the EZ path to riches, there are many legitimate, and free, or nearly free, work from home ideas. Here are just a few.

* Be a fundraising agent, helping groups and non-profits with proven fundraising solutions.

* Get a piece of the $2.5 Billion pet market. Start a pet sitting business, a doggy day care or gourmet doggy bakery.

* Make and sell wire jewelry.

* Sell products on eBay or your own website without having to stock inventory!

For more information on the job ideas in this article or for a list of work from ideas from A to Z, visit http://www.FrugalMom.net.