Did you get new electronics this holiday season? What do you do with the old ones? Outdated and obsolete computers, phones, and gadgets–oh, my! Over at Savings.com, I share all the ways you can deal with them–sell, recycle, or donate–there are lots of options!

I’d love to hear about your experiences with old electronics. Please share them in the Comments at Savings.com.

Last week I shared how I made $50 selling a set of chairs on Craigslist. If you’re not comfortable with Craigslist, there is another option that you might prefer: sell to your social groups. Think about the groups that you’re involved in–Moms Club, church group, preschool, etc.–and consider offering your items for sale. You avoid dealing with strangers, and you can even meet up at a familiar location if you don’t want people coming to your home.

I’ve used this process many times to successfully sell baby gear and other furniture:

1. Check with your group leader or email moderator to see if you’re allowed to list items for sale through your email group.
2. Make sure your furniture/baby gear/etc. is very clean and in working order. Take clear photos.
3. Write a detailed description, including measurements, and answer any anticipated questions. Include your asking price and if dealing with people you know, your phone number.
4. Send an email out to your group with your item for sale; alternately, post a flier at your church or other meeting location. Be ready to respond to buyers, and once your item sells, post to the group that it has sold.

Selling through your social groups takes the stranger-danger factor of Craigslist out of the equation, plus you’re more likely to complete a sale since it is harder for buyers to “flake” on someone they know. I also like knowing that baby/kid items I sell

Do you remember these chairs? I bought them on Craigslist for $30 over two years ago, so my twins could sit at the end of the table once they were out of their highchairs. Now that they’re in kindergarten, they’ve been upgraded to real dining room chairs, so I decided to sell them. My husband didn’t think it was worth taking the time to recover the seats (I was grossed out by the stained blue fabric). It took me 15 minutes to do one evening, and they looked as good as new. I ended up selling them for $50 on Craigslist, making $20 more than I paid for them two years ago!

Have you sold furniture, baby gear or other items on Craigslist? I do it occasionally to clear out clutter and to bring in extra income. Here’s my process:

1. Look for similar items on Craigslist to get a sense of how to price them. I found that others were selling barstools/chairs for $25-75, so I went with $50. I also considered what I’d paid. I would have been fine with someone bargaining down. If you don’t like to bargain, type “Price is firm.” in your listing.
2. Thoroughly clean your items before you take photos and list them. You can price your items higher and earn more money when things look great!
3. Give details when you post your Craigslist ad. Remember to include the measurements and answer any questions you anticipate; this helps you avoid lots of back-and-forth email questions. As for location, I give a landmark near my house so people have an idea where they’d be driving.
4. Post your ad and be ready to respond to emails within the next day or two. When I get responses, I look for attentive buyers who offer a pickup time. I only send my address once we’ve responded back and forth successfully.

Here’s what my ad looked like:

I was pleased to have four responses right away. No one bargained down, so that told me that I’d priced them right. I ended up selling them the very same day for the full $50.

Just received my first FREE $10 Gas Card from Kellogg’s! Have you sent away for one yet? Just buy 10 participating products and submit the UPC codes with this printable form by December 31, 2011, to receive your card in the mail. You can get 5 cards per household, so I plan to do this again when there’s a good cereal sale.

If you haven’t used a prepaid gas card before, they can be a little tricky to redeem. The easiest method I’ve found is to take mine to the gas station, go inside and ask for $10 of gas, then use the card to pay.

Last month, I shared how I earn FREE gift cards through MyPoints each year. While I was on vacation, two readers commented that they were having trouble figuring it out, so I wanted to follow up on their concerns and help anyone else who was having trouble. Here are a couple more things to know about using Bonus Mails to earn MyPoints:

1) Login to your MyPoints account, and click on “My Account” at the top. You’ll get to this page:

3) You’ll see “BonusMail” as one of the options. You DO want to receive this; these are the emails that let you click through and earn 5 points at a time without signing up for anything. I suggest you unsubscribe from everything else; BonusMail is the only box I have checked.

4) You’ll now receive two kinds of BonusMail from MyPoints. Most frequently, you’ll get emails like the one above, with a “Get Points” link (see above). They also send occasional offers that do not include anything to click (see below). I just delete those.

I hope this helps clear up the confusion about getting started with MyPoints! Please let me know what other questions you have in the Comments section below.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting MoneywiseMoms at no cost to you–in fact, you’ll earn money on this one!

Today’s mail had a FREE $50 Gas Card, courtesy of MyPoints. I’ve mentioned MyPoints before, it’s one of the small ways I earn extra income each year. Typically, I earn $75-100 in gift cards from them per year, just by clicking on the “MyPoints Bonus Mail” they email me. These are offers, similar to what you see on my blog and others–things like signing up for e-newsletters, printing coupons, etc.–but instead of completing each offer, you earn 5 points every time you click through. For just a few seconds of clicking once a week, I earn enough points to redeem for cards like this $50 Shell Gas Card. It’s a tiny amount of time and effort for the payout.

I’ve done a video on how I use MyPoints, but the sound is a little fuzzy at the beginning. Here’s a tutorial to show how I make MyPoints work for me:

1) Login to MyPoints (or make an account if you don’t have one yet). Click on “My Account” in the top right, then “Manage Email Subscriptions” in the bottom right.

2) Subscribe to “BonusMail” only to avoid too many emails and offers. Of course, if you enjoy doing Surveys and other offers, you can earn more points that way. I like to keep things simple.

3) Create a folder in your email program that will filter out your MyPoints Bonus Mails into one spot. I set a filter in GMail so they’re all in one place.

4) Once a week or so, I click through on all the offers, earning 5 points each. Occasionally, I check my account at MyPoints to see what gift cards I’m eligible for. Obviously, $10 and $25 gift cards require less points, but I just let my points accumulate so I can get a $50 gift card, which has a better ratio of points per dollar.

5) Redeem, and enjoy! If you don’t want a FREE Gas Card, there are restaurant and retail cards, or other rewards.

**Updated: See my follow-up post on MyPoints.