3 Easy Ways to Make $100

1. Earn interest on your idle cash.
Open up a high-yield savings account that links up directly with your existing checking account and pumps up that piddly interest rate you're getting now. At 5% APY, with every $2,000 in cash you can make $100 more in interest a year. Banks with local branches like Washington Mutual and Citibank are even in the game. Currently, we are taking advantage of the 6% promotional offer at FNBO Direct.

2. Get cash back whenever you make a purchase.
If you are responsible with credit cards, you should really use a credit card that gives you cash back or other perks when buying everyday purchases like groceries, gas, dining out, and everything else. You can easily get back $100 a year without changing your spending patterns. Last year, we received almost $800 back by charging nearly every purchase. What we currently use:

• Chase Rewards Plus for gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases (5%)
• Costco Amex TrueEarnings for dining out (3%), travel (2%), and purchases at Costco (1%)
• Fidelity 529 College Rewards for everything else (2% into a 529 account)

3. Save on monthly expenses.
With just a simple phone call, you can save at least $100 a year on monthly expenses. Example, I just saved $120 for a year by haggling down my high speed Internet bill, and it took all of three minutes to do. Also, you can drop that landline service and save $25 per month by switching to VoIP phone service (I'm currently looking into this possibility).