...Anyhow, I wanted to get into mining Bitcoins, just something that can give me extra cash in the long run. ... Are there any alternate ways of mining bitcoins? I don't even care if I only make $30-$50 a month from mining bitcoins.
You can't realistically mine bitcoins, but you can mine other coins and get paid in BTC. Check out NiceHash. Expect to earn less than $1 per day.