Ipoll

Ever wish you could earn a few extra bucks while you shop at the store, buy coffee, or watch a movie? Grocery shopping is, after all, work, and it can't hurt to capture some cash while you roam the aisles. Check out the iPoll app, which is free for Apple and Android, and pays you actual cash for completing surveys.

Here's how it works: Once you download the app and sign up for an iPoll account, you'll give the app specific information about yourself that will then qualify you for certain surveys, which I've seen pay anywhere from ten cents to over $30.00 per qualifying survey. 

Very important: In my test of the app, it appeared that the most lucrative polls required me to be in a specific location when taking the survey, which the app checks before crediting you with the money. For example, I completed a survey that required me to be in the cereal aisle at Target which netted me $15.00, as well as a movie viewers' survey that paid $5.00 which confirmed my presence at the theater before even introducing the first question. Therefore, it is essential that you turn on the location servicesfeature of your phone if you want to qualify for the maximum number of surveys.

What the surveys entail: Our test revealed that the most lucrative surveys require the most legwork, but I never faced any polls that were actually difficult. For instance, a grocery poll that paid $10.00 required me to take photographs of a healthy snack food to confirm where it was placed in the snack aisle at my supermarket. In addition, I had to answer several questions about the placement on the shelves of the snack food and how appealing it seemed. This was an easy $10.00 for a few minutes of extra work since I was already in the store for a weekly shopping trip.

What's appealing about this app is that it typically tells you up-front how long a poll will take you to complete, so if you don't have 15 extra minutes, you'll know not to start a survey that takes that long. In addition, when you get an offer for a new poll, the app will give you a notification, and when you tap on the app, the details of that survey will be shown, including when the offer expires, what it entails, and how much it pays. The app also sends you notifications if you happen to be near a location with a participating survey. In the photo above, you can see that I have one email message waiting for me (in the upper right-hand corner of the photo) which, when I clicked it, said "Location Alert: $5.00 mission available for Target." This is nice to know when you're shopping.

In just one month, I earned $95.68, as shown in the photo above. This did not require me to go to any additional locations besides where I already was, and it was extremely easy to do. I then cashed in $50 of that to be deposited into my PayPal account, and it appeared there about three weeks later.

Cashing in: To cash in your money for a reward, you have to visit the iPoll website to see your options based on your balance. It appears that the PayPal transfer option is only available if you have least a $50.00 balance. At lower levels, the rewards vary from shoe store gift certificates to magazine subscriptions, and on the higher end, you can not only get cash, you can also get an Amazon or Visa gift card.