You’ve missed this freebie, but you’ll find all of the Freebies here. I am so excited to share this opportunity with you to apply for Nielsen’s Homescan Consumer Panel. I’ve heard from other readers who are active in this program, and they find it a rewarding and easy way to earn free merchandise. Opportunities are limited based on where you live (they aren’t recruiting new households in my area) but I encourage you to quickly apply to find out if there are openings in your area. Please be aware that this can be time-consuming as you have to scan all of your purchases, so it is certainly not something that everyone would be willing or able to do.
I’m listing it my “Money 4 Mom” series because I consider it an opportunity to earn things of a higher value than you normally would in a word-of-mouth program. But it is also a way to share your opinion and be rewarded for providing data for consumer research.
Here’s what one of my readers, Samantha, said about it:
“Hey I was wondering if you have told your readers about Homescan? Where you scan all the things you buy and transmit them everyweek and earn points to get free stuff? My mom has been doing it for a couple of years and I recently signed up, there is a slight waiting list to get a scanner, it took me only a couple of months though. But you also receive surveys by mail and email you can do and earn extra points, also if you transmit every single week you get extra and so on. I got my scanner in mid-December and that’s when I started and I’m almost up to 4000 points. To me it seems like it would be great for christmas shopping. I’m planing to get my mother in law a digital camera for Christmas this year just from scanning my groceries! You can get TVs and all sorts of things. Its totally free to sign up, you don’t pay for anything.”
Who is Nielsen? A well-known marketing company that produces the TV ratings, and they also are known for sending people cash in the mail in hopes they’ll complete a short survey about their TV viewing habits. Nielsen also named me as a 2009 Power Mom, a list of 50 influential mom bloggers. It’s quite an honor for me to have made that list!
You’ll find more useful resources in my Money 4 Mom series where I’ve shared how you can make money by blogging, working online, doing in-person market research, participating in University studies, selling on eBay, and even viewing YouData ads on my blog. I hope you find this series a useful resource if you are looking for sources of extra income.
I was really, really excited when I signed up for Nielsen Homescan. My scanner came within a couple of months and I couldn't wait to get started. I was so disappointed after opening the box. There was so much to go through and look at it; that alone was extremely time consuming. I wanted to be sure I was doing it correctly and thought I'd just love it once I got the hang of it, but I was so wrong! The scanner was really hard to get to even scan the barcodes properly (which by the way I had read somewhere to have the kids join in and help by scanning on the trip. My 5 & 6 year old would never have been able to scan)and once it did there were a whole bunch of steps involved for EACH item I purchased. I stuck with it for a week and did A TON of shopping that week, too. I submitted my transmission and started on the next week and then began receiving really irritating calls that they had not received a transmission and I needed to submit. As a former POS coordinator for Longs Drugs, I thought this would really be something perfect for me to do that would be interesting, fun and a little rewarding. It was none of these things. It was far too complicated for something that shouldn't be. ANY reward would take forever to earn. I don't believe anyone who is a mom should sign up for it, the time commitment is far greater than what you'll expect and what mom has any extra time to begin with?
I was accepted and they sent me my scanner. I was doing a practice run and it kept telling me something was incorrect. I called the company and they told me it was broken. I had to send it back. Now I'm waiting:(
I received an email today saying they have a scanner for me. Wondering …do I want to do this after reading the comments.
We have been doing this for several years now & you can't imagine how quickly the points add up. Last summer, we got a sand & water table for the grandkids, shipped to our door completely free! This is the large one that retails for $80-90 everywhere. The kids love it & the price was perfect! I have several thousand points now, just waiting patiently for a nice CHRISTmas gift for the grandkids this year. If at all possible, you definitely should try this. It's fun & you get incredible free stuff!
Hi! I'm tempted to participate in this program but I was just wondering if it's really safe to give them all your household information?
Other Alternative Income Streamshttp://cheapogroovo.vox.com/library/posts/tags/alternative+income+streams/
Jeanie – You'll find everything I've written in my Money 4 Mom series right here. I hope you will find a few things that will help you out!-HeatherFreebies 4 Mom
I just had a question, I really need a way to make some extra money, and I tried the Nielson Home scanning and it just was not for me, I am a member of YouData but have not made much at all, and I have tried joining different surveys, but again have not made anything..what are all the ways that have been posted on the series "Money4Mom" to make some extra money besides the 2 I mentioned above? I would really appreciate any help..Thank you…Jeanie
I did this for a while, and it is very time consuming, and not worth it in my opinion.
I, too, participated in this program and only made it about nine months. I'd have problems sending reports, and the scanner was missing too many of my local stores. It took a while to accumulate enough points for redemption, though Nielsen did send a few gifts for my one- and three-month anniversaries.They DO give you an option to transmit a special code if you will be unable to participate for a week or two (so you would not lose your perfect scanning bonus), but I found it difficult to figure out, as did my computer programmer husband.If you can make this program work for you, though, it can be a lot of fun!
Hi there!I just signed up and at the end of the survey it said that I would be placed on a waiting list and sent a scanner when one is available for a household like mine. Does anyone know what the average wait is for a scanner by chance???
I have been a member for almost a year; it took me 8 years to get a scanner! It IS time comsuming, but I have been doing this too long to quit now. I write down my coupons, amounts, and products they match so I don't forget when I get home. I used to scan items at the store; (my husband was very patient!) but it was easier at home. To me it's worth the time.
I did it for a few months but found it to be burdensome. I had to scan each item I purchased. We are a large family and we have lots of purchses to scan. I did not find the rewards worth all my time.
I also tried this for several months and found it to be NOT worth my time. Like the others said, it was way too time consuming for the number of points you earned, so not worth it. I never even earned a reward after like 8 months on the program, so I quit and cut my losses–after staying on about 6 months longer than I should have, trying to earn SOMETHING for all my trouble. Doing surveys online has paid much better for my time than scanning groceries. I just want people to know what they are getting into if they sign up. If you have little kids, this is probably not for you!
I did this for quite a few months and like some other posters, I found it to be far too time consuming and not beneficial enough. At the time I had a baby and a 2 yr old and quite simply didn't have time to answer all of the questions that they wanted to know after EVERY purchase (they even want you to scan that bottle of soda that you bought on your road trip!). It got to the point that I started leaving things out/lying about coupons just to get the darn thing done! They were nice enough to send all of the packaging and postage that I needed to send it back to them.
One more thing… you need 9,000 points to earn a reward. I see only 2 items at that point level. An xbox is 315,000 points. You earn 150 points each week you transmit. Assuming you do it without fail, you get 7800 points/year. You get 150 pts/month if you transmit each week that month. That brings it to 9600 pts for the year. You can get a Step 2 easel for two for 34,000 points, which retails for $50. You do the math.
Tried to sign up.But they weren't accepting in my area?Is there any way to find out when they will be?c
I'm doing it now and very tempted to call it quits myself. I don't know how to input my Wags/CVS deals because if you use a coupon for more than what an item is worth, it won't let you input it into the scanner. I do those deals weekly, so not sure how to handle that. It is a little bit of work. You have to recall which coupon went with which item, which gets difficult if you use a lot of coupons….
I participated in this program very briefly a few months back. For me I didn't think that is was worth the effort. The process was very time consuming. For each grocery trip you had to input A LOT of info. For each item it asked for how many you bought, what the price was, was it on sale, if you used a coupon, how much the coupon was for, was it store/manu coupon, etc. With the amount of coupons I use, it just seemed like too many steps that I honestly just didn't have time for. Sometimes I am lucky to just get the groceries put away :) Anyway, I am glad it is working for Samantha.
Dang it… they aren't accepting any applicants from my area :( Oh well…maybe someday.I do want to talk about the Nielsen Tv Ratings. IF they call you, LISTEN to their spiel. It is worth it. They will ask you some questions about your tv usage, etc., then they may ask you to participate in a week-long study. They will send you diaries to fill out for a week…a little time-consuming, but not hard. AND it is true, they send you CASH! I did it about a year ago, and they sent me $30 (a twenty and a ten). They called me again back in May to see if I would do it, and I said OF COURSE! And last week, I received an envelope in the mail with $50 (2 twenties and a ten)!! Just in time to get the hubs a Father's Day/anniversary present.