Mega Swagbucks Friday + A different kind of saving

It is Mega Swagbucks Friday! If you are new to Swagbucks, I would suggest signing up asap! If you click on the Swagbucks tag you can find out even more about it and how to get the most for your effort :) Mega Swagbucks Friday means that the searches will have higher denominations! I have gotten some pretty big bucks on Fridays so I'm hoping this Friday is no different.

I have a pretty big reason to look for extra Swagbucks- I am saving up for my own birthday present. Well, kind of. I want an iPod Touch and those are not really in our budget. So, I am saving up whatever I can to help offset the cost. I decided to buy it off of Amazon since I have free 2 day shipping AND because I can save up Amazon gift cards (and when family members ask what I want, I can give that as an option). In the past month (not calendar month- the past 30 days) I have earned $15 in giftcards. Not a huge amount, but it will help! It'd be really awesome to get it down to free, but even if I don't- getting it as cheap as possible would be great.

Do you use your Swagbucks to save up for treats?

Mega Swagbuck Friday + Tips!

It is Mega Swagbuck Friday! Which means that there should be higher denominations when searches are done today! If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks, I suggest doing so today! It may seem too good to be true, but it really isn't. Since June 2010 I have redeemed 29 Giftcards for Amazon ($145) and 1 for Starbucks ($10), just for searching online like I usually do.

I also have some tips and tricks that I have tried out this week. The first has been the most successful with bigger results. I used to have my bookmarks just going to the site I wanted to visit. I would try to remember to search for it, but would forget most of the time. Now I have the searches to the website saved as my bookmark and I have to click through to the website to go to it. It is only 1 more click and just as easy.

So for example, instead of having a link to Facebook as my bookmark/favorite place, I have the link to the swagbucks search for "facebook" saved. So when I click on that, it does a search for facebook and then I click onto facebook to proceed.

I started this on 3/19 to see if it really would make a difference. That day alone I got 24 swagbucks from searches alone. The day before I only had 18 and the day before that only 7. Since then my daily totals have been 30, 26, 39, 35, 33, and 11 already this morning. I changed nothing else in my routine and am already just a few swagbucks away from cashing in another $5 giftcard.

Other things I do daily are to take the daily poll (1 swagbuck), NOSO (2 swagbucks), and Trusted Surveys (1 swagbuck just for clicking it). These all help (doing them all in one month would get 120 swagbucks!) but from my experience searching is really where the money is at.

Mega Swagbucks Friday!

If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks, now is a good time to! Every Friday the "swagbucks" you get for searches are higher values! If you don't know about swagbucks, you can find out more from my post here.

Mega Swag Bucks Friday!

I finally got a big search on a Mega Swag Bucks Friday! :)

If you haven't heard about Swagbucks yet, you should sign up! You sign up and use it to search and can gain "swagbucks" for doing so. Then when you are able to redeem them you can get tons of different things. My favorite giftcard is the Amazon $5 Gift Card for only 450 swagbucks! You can add them to your account and bank them up to get a bigger purchase.

My own experience has been awesome. I have earned $100 in gift cards since May just for searching online. Sign up!

Swagbucks

If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet, you're missing out! You're going to see me post a lot about this because I have used it so much and have gotten so much for free because of it!

You sign up then install their toolbar. Then all you need to do is use that instead of google to find things online. If all you do is that, you'll still make swagbucks. If you want to try to make more you can do the daily polls, read the blog for codes, and there are also offers you can complete or videos you can watch for more swagbucks.

Once you start earning swagbucks, check out the swagstore to see what to buy! My favorite is the $5 Amazon Gift Card for only 450 swagbucks. These add up fast and with Amazon's super saver shipping (or if you have signed up for Amazon Mom or Amazon Student accounts you can use the FREE shipping).

Also, Fridays are Mega Swagbuck Fridays and you get higher denominations when searching!

Sales on Hold

Blogging has been difficult since the birth of my son. He will be 2 months on the 16th and in the whirlwind of having not only a long pregnancy but a difficult delivery and recovery, I haven't been able to focus on sales as much as I used to! I have also learned that you can't do everything. Pick what works for your family and in the end if you're saving money and able to have a life, then you're winning. Even if others save more- what matters is how you make it work for your family.

I miss it, but in some ways my life is a little more simple when I make a list, make a menu, and just go with the flow in that way rather than match sales to coupons, organize multiple trips, and walk out with a lot of stuff but not enough to make 2 weeks of meals with unless you have other stuff stocked up already. That doesn't mean that I don't feel a twinge of jealousy when I see friends posting about their coupon freebies!

I still plan to keep this blog going because there is more to life than coupons and even using them wisely can really help in the long run. I still don't have to buy pasta at full price and enjoy a bagel with free cream cheese each morning ;)

Some things that I hope to bring up on the blog in the future are:

Winter Entertainment
Christmas Activities
Frugal Gift Ideas
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking


I do have to say that stocking up on diapers while I could watch the sales was a great idea. We went through them and I was left trying to find good deals as we needed more, which is more difficult. I did join Amazon Mom which gives 15% off of many diapers and by using that, the subscribe and save option (another 15% off), AND coupons found in magazines I was able to get Pampers for 10 cents a diaper. Add in the fact that I used my Swagbucks, not bank account, to pay for them and you've got cheap AND free diapers :D

So stick around to see more of how I make one income work with 3 kids :)