Being stuck at home due to COVID quarantine or any other reason can be tough on those personal expenses that otherwise depend on steady income. However, there are an increasing number of ways one can make money from home, and particularly, while shopping online. If the idea of getting paid kickback money for the shopping you do anyway sounds great to you, here are five, great ideas that may just directly pave the way for that goal.

eBates/Rakuten

Starting in 1998, eBates emerged on the scene as a prominent and pioneering paid-to shop company, but in recent times changed its name to “Rakuten.” Available as a mobile app or in traditional website form, users of this service are able to easily submit their purchases and redeem their submissions for rewards. Over 2,500 stores are eligible for purchase reporting with Rakuten, and as of the time of this writing, new members are receiving an instant welcome bonus of $10 added to their accounts at startup. Cashback rewards here can vary greatly, but some purchases are actually eligible for up to a very generous 80-percent cash back.

Cash-Back Credit Cards

As covered in a recent article by the experts at Dollar Dig, another great idea to consider for earning money online while shopping is that of using cash-back credit cards. In essence, these are typical credit cards in most other ways, but they also accumulate cash-back rewards automatically based on your activities with the card. There are some cards like this that are offered by the major credit card companies, and there are also many options specifically offered by stores themselves. For those options provided through the major credit card companies and not in stores, customers are also often able to find cards that offer cashback on all purchases, as opposed to only select purchases.

Referral Programs

Many stores today also offer one more, helpful perk via what are commonly referred to as “referral programs.” To earn via these programs, the customer simply must refer friends or family members to that store for their shopping needs. Some of these programs offer rewards based on just the initial referral, while others require some subsequent purchase by the referred party in order for the referrer to then be rewarded. Even better, in many other referral programs still, both the referrer and the referred can receive rewards based on that initial referral as well as all future purchases.

Coupon Cactus

Money Pantry is often a good resource for money-saving, thrifty tips, and their tip to utilize the website Coupon Cactus for all it’s worth is certainly a great one. Coupon Cactus helps out financially in two ways – by providing cash back on some purchases and by offering instant coupon codes on purchases at hundreds of stores. To use their coupons, you simply shop like normal and then enter the Coupon Cactus coupon code at the store at checkout to instantly save. Some find this site extra helpful due to its additional offer of international coupons for purchases in a number of countries outside the US.

Mystery Shop

Mystery Shopping is a relatively new phenomenon in which shoppers are paid extra or somehow rewarded for shopping at certain stores. The store workers themselves have no idea that these are special customers, and the point of it all is for those customers to experience the store in full and report back to its corporate management on that experience, usually via a third-party mystery shopping service. Just about anyone can become a mystery shopper, and the services of these compensated customers are utilized in all formats where commerce is done today – online, in-store, by phone, and so on.

Being stuck at home can be tough on anyone’s finances. This blow can really be offset substantially, though, if you are resourceful, and it doesn’t get much more resourceful than finding legitimate ways to get paid for the regular shopping you do anyway. These five tips for making money while online shopping are among some of the top options available right now.