Free Legitimate Websites That Actually Help Me Save Money

Here on tepom.com, I encourage you to spend less money and try to give advice on where to put what's left over. Today I'm going to share some free websites that actually/legitimately/genuinely help me and my family save money.

Upromise - If you're ever going to pay for someone's education, this is a must. It's a free service that rewards you with cash back for making purchases from its marketing partners. The only catch is that the money needs to be used to pay for college, which is enforced by placing your cash rewards into a 529 college savings account. Prices aren't marked up, you retain promotional discounts, and you can shop normally as you always would. There is a neat little toolbar that will detect when you're at a partner's website and will automatically give your reward. For example, ShoeBuy.com claims to have the lowest price on the internet for shoes and they also a partner with Upromise. Last week, I bought a pair of sneakers at an already low price, received ShoeBuy's 20% Columbus Day discount, and then another 10% cash back into my Upromise account. On average, Upromise deposits $270 per year into my college account, and I don't have to change my shopping habits one bit.

You also get credit for shopping at brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants by registering your credit and debit cards with Upromise and using them at the establishments. Additionally, by making travel reservations online, you will receive a percentage back after your stay is complete; I get 3% back on all hotel stays in addition to the other reward points offered by the hotel. And if I had used Upromise before I bought my house, I would have received about $700 for using a Century 21 agent.

Again, Upromise is completely free and easy to set up. You will earn between 1-10% cash back on your purchases and you can continue to shop like you always have for the best prices on goods, services, trips, and more. If you happen to land at a Upromise-sponsored business, you automatically receive your reward. If not, no big deal.

Mint.com - I've spoken of Mint several times on my site. It is a free personal finance website that provides software similar to Quicken, but with a much nicer and simpler user interface. Mint is incredibly easy to use and quite powerful, too.

If you have ever wanted to start a budget or to have a single view into all of your accounts -- be they retirement savings, college funds, checking and savings accounts, mortgage and auto loans, or credit cards -- this is the place to do it. By securely entering your username and password for each account, Mint will access the site and place your transactions into a single list. If you've got an issue with your spending discipline, Mint can keep it in check by showing you your up-to-date adherence to your monthly budget -- how much you've spent so far at restaurants, clothing stores, etc in a graphical, colorful "thermometer."

Also, be sure to check out their new Investments feature that will show how well your individual investments are doing compared to the rest of the market. And if you're interested in comparisons, you can easily see how much you spend at Starbucks or Walmart compared to other people in your city or state.

Craigslist - I hate to sound like a dirty college student, but you'd be amazed at the great deals you can find on Craigslist on all sorts of things. It's local, the stuff is inexpensive, it's super-duper easy and completely free to use for both buyers and sellers.

I don't use it as religiously as some, but before I make any major purchase, I'll look there. When I almost purchased an electric lawn edger at Lowes for $90, I bought the same one on craigslist for $25. When I almost bought the $500 bunkbed set for my guest room, I found the exact same one on Craigslist for $80. When I was inches away from buying a $2,000 digital piano in a music store, I found a comparable one on Craigslist for $400.

And Craigslist is a good way for you to get rid of your old stuff and make money. One Saturday when we cleaned out the garage, I made a Craigslist pile and then turned it into few hundred dollars cash within a week. It was nice to be rid of my old vacuum cleaner, a printer, and an extra coffee table, and I was happy to help some neighbors get their own good deals.

Please leave a comment with your own online all-stars that are legitimate, free, and will put cash in your pocket.

Add some zing to your site (or cash to your pocket) with stock photography

If you're a photographer or a the owner of a website, you should check out iStockPhoto.com. iStockPhoto is a Canadian site that allows photographers to upload their own photos to a platform that sells the royalty-free photos to designers. Note: In this case, royalty-free means that the designer pays a single flat fee for the usage of a photo and does not pay the photographer or site each time it is used.

Here's how it works:

For designers:
You can purchase stock photography for one of two prices: an ad hoc price and a subscription price. Only site-proprietary credits may be used to pay for photos. Credits cost up to $.94 apiece with an on-demand purchase, and as little as $.29 apiece with a $521/month 60 credit/day subscription (which are use-it-or-lose-it credits). $.32 credits are also available with a $96/month 10 credit/day subscription.

The price of photos then depend on the size and resolution that you would like to download. Low-res photos cost one credit. Extra high-res photos cost 20 credits.

For photographers:
As you might imagine, there are a lot of photographers out there that believe that their work is cunning and genius and that graphic designers would gladly give a left leg (or something else) to get their hands on one of their photos. The truth is, there are lots of good photographers out there and iStockPhoto is very particular about the photos -- and types of photos -- that they post on their site. In fact, just to be able to post photos on the site, photographers must fill out an application, read about several of the site's guidelines, take and pass a quiz on the material, and submit three artistic samples. I've always considered myself a skilled photographer, but my own application was denied.

Remember, this is a stock photography site. Most of the photography is non-controversial and geared toward a corporate environment. The models are attractive, the kids are cute, and the colors are bright. Before you submit any of your photos, browse the site to see what has been the most popular. From what I can find, this is the most popular photo on the site.

Photos are heavily screened before being listed, and guidelines are clearly posted for the types of pictures that are in highest demand (currently businesspeople and sports). If you decide to submit some work, I would recommend taking photos specifically for the purpose of selling them as stock photography, ensuring that they are at high quality with a low ISO and not over or under exposed.

Photographers are paid 20% of the selling price of the photo. If your work is popular, you may become an Exclusive Contributor and earn 40% instead.If you have professional photography equipment, a good eye, and the ability to capture the types of photos that are demanded by graphic designers, iStockPhoto may be right for you. If you're like me and have less than $2,000 worth of camera equipment and take photos only of your friends (unless all your friends are smiling businesspeople with folded arms), iStockPhoto may simply be a place for you to explore others' art and get some ideas.