As anybody who’s thought too hard about it will tell you, certain things- websites, editors, writing and art equipment, etc- cost money. Since my salary has to go strictly towards various living expenses for the foreseeable future, I’m embarking on a financial journey, looking for alternative ways to raise the kind of money I need to both sustain my work and pursue my creative career. Hopefully, keeping track of the various methods I try don’t just help me, but also provide a decent reference for any creative professional or creator out there who might be in a similar situation.
That being said, as of today, March 25 2018:
So far it’s not going great. I follow the Pennyhoarder Facebook page at the moment, although I generally don’t actually click through to any of the articles… so, probably shouldn’t be following it. I can’t help it! I can’t fathom half of what they post.
Anyway. An article caught my eye recently that had a list of Android apps that you could use to make money in one sitting, and I did take a look at that one. Some of the apps were, hm, not suitable for me personally: driving for Uber or Lyft, selling unwanted possessions, that sort of thing. However, I did find an app that seemed kind of promising, and I decided to try it out: Lucktastic. It’s basically an app for free virtual scratch-off cards and sweepstakes- you can earn real money, or in-game currency (tokens,) or entries into various ongoing sweepstakes. You don’t have to pay towards any of it, because it seems to be funded exclusively through advertising, although I could be wrong on that one. You do have to provide a certain amount of legal information in order to register to redeem any winnings, though.
As of today, I’ve been diligently playing it for about ten or eleven days (I should have kept track and I didn’t think to do so, alas.) As of today, I have accrued a little over 12600 tokens- so, enough to gain a yearlong subscription to Cosmopolitan Magazine, which is a thing I do not have space for at this time- and won a combined total of $1.25, which is 75 cents too little to actually redeem. (The bottom limit appears to be $2.)
Pros:
Again, not having to actually pay for anything is pretty ideal for any kind of gambling thing. I’ve also seen a handful of interesting-looking apps advertised on it, some of which might actually be useful towards this fundraising goal. And if you can find it in yourself to dedicate anywhere from 15-45 minutes of your life to this, every single day, in a month you can probably farm enough tokens to get a 25$ or 50$ gift card for Amazon.
Cons:
I don’t actually mind having to see ads to literally do any of the features on this app, but the screen flashes between various dark and bright loading screens, kind of without warning- if you’re prone to migraines or have light sensitivity at all, probably should skip this one. I’ve had four notifications on the main screen for over a week and I can’t figure out how to make it not say that I have unread messages. And this should go without saying, but if you or anyone in your family has a history of gambling addiction, it’s not worth the download.
Overall it’s a vaguely fun little app, if scratch-offs are your preferred method of gambling or wasting time- to be honest, it doesn’t seem to be for me. I’m probably going to try to hold out til the end of the month before I delete the app, but that is mostly because I try to be a completionist and they’ve got me feeling like I’ve already invested ten days of my life here. But if you’re looking for a time-waster and don’t want to give Candy Crush or Fruit Ninja any more of your eyeballs, it’s a pretty decent way to eat up a wait at a DMV or dentist.
SHARO 
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