Hey Gang,
Saw someone make a similar post awhile back which has helped me in making/saving a bit during residency. Wanted to pay it forward by adding some ideas of my own. Without further ado:
1. Take medical surveys--these are an easy way to make $15-100 per survey. I'd estimate you can make about $40 an hour with how long the surveys take. Downside is there seems to be a fair amount of lag time between surveys, though your results may vary. From Sermo alone I made $1100 last year as evidenced by the IRS form they sent me at tax time.
Currently the bonus is $10 just for signing up.
You can sign up for Sermo here.
Also, Medscape will occasionally send paid survey invitations, though I've had much better luck with Sermo. You can sign up here. Use invitation code 258382SR
2. Use cashback portals whenever possible. Between Amazon, Peapod, Boxed etc we now spend a large portion of our money online. The vast majority of websites offer cashback when you first go through their website. How it works is as follows: find something on a site you intend to buy anyway (groceries or other products), see which portal offers the best cashback, and use the link provided to click through from the cashback portal to earn up to 20% cashback. Below are some of the better portals I have found.
Ebates - $15 sign up bonus currently
BeFrugal - $15 sign up bonus currently
Topcashback - $15 sign up bonus currently
ActiveJunky - $5 sign up bonus currently
3. Make sure you are getting discounts from your hospital or university for your cell phone bill. Most organizations have discounts of up to 25% and all you need is a work email address or to go into the store with your ID card.
4. Whenever possible use credit cards that earn miles/points and then pay these off monthly from your bank account. One of my personal favorites is the Southwest card which offers 50,000 miles which can be worth up to 8-10 flight. We've lucked out that we can use a credit card to pay our rent which is worth ~2,000 miles per month. Here's a link to the 50,000 miles offer.
Anyway, this is a starting point, hopefully others can post other avenues of making money below...
