Making the most of your Swagbucks account


Search & Win

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know that I use gift cards to pay for a lot of things to help lower my out of pocket expenses. You may be wondering how I earn all of these gift cards. Most of my gift cards that I earn come either from credit card rewards (I’ll post about that another time) and from various online survey or rewards companies.

Last week, I posted here about Swagbucks, which is a site where you earn points that can be exchanged for gift cards or merchandise for searching the web. The cash out amounts are fairly low (you only need 45 points to cash out for a $5 Amazon gift card). I earned enough points for an Amazon card during my first week.

Here are a few tricks I have learned along the way:

*Do a few searches every day until you earn at least one Swagbuck. I have found that I only have to enter 2-5 search strings to win (I enter search strings consecutively until I earn a Swagbuck). Even if you only earn one Swagbuck each day and you search each day, you will have earned 365 points by the end of the year, or enough to cash out for $40 worth of Amazon gift cards. That would help out with Christmas shopping, especially if Amazon has their killer toy sale again like they have in previous years! If you’d rather have gift cards for somewhere else, it would be enough for a $20 Target gift card, a $5 Subway gift card, and a $5 Amazon gift card. Or, you could get a $30 Barnes & Noble gift card. You could also get a $30 iTunes card and a $5 Starbucks card. As you can see, there are tons of possibilities!

*If you have a Facebook account, become a “fan” of Swagbucks on Facebook. Click here to do this. If you check out the wall, there are bonus codes posted once or twice a day that you can add to your account. (To add bonus codes, log into Swagbucks, and then click on the icon that says “You have X Swagbucks.” There will be a box that says this: Have a SwagCode? Just enter it here and receive your SwagBucks instantly! Enter your code and click GIMME!)

*Publish your Swagbucks winnings on Facebook – when you “win” a buck, you now have the option of posting your win on Facebook. It shows up on your profile and it’s another way to promote your Swagbucks account (and get more ‘friends’)

*Read the Swagbucks blog (you can access this from the main page when you log into your Swagbucks account). Bonus codes are posted here, as well.

*Sign up for the Swagbucks newsletter. They send bonus codes embedded in the newsletter, so it’s an easy way to earn extra Swagbucks!

*Download the Swagbucks Toolbar onto your internet browser – Click on the “toolbars” option on the left hand side of the website after you log in and follow the instructions!

*Post the Swidget on your blog or your Facebook page. You can download it here.

*Tell all your friends – When your friends sign up under you, you win when they win for the first 100 Swagbucks (this does not include any Swagcodes that they enter)

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can join here. You will get 3 Swagbucks for joining!

HAPPY SEARCHING! 🙂

Become a fan of Sears on Facebook, get a $5 Sears card!

If you’re a Facebook member, hurry and become a fan of Sears and get a $5 gift card! 🙂

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/sears

Here are the details:

The first 10,000 Facebook users to become fans of the Sears Facebook page between 11/8/08 – 11/30/08 and sign up to receive Sears email offers will be eligible to receive a free $5 Sears Gift Card by mail. The first 10,000 Facebook users to become Sears fans will be notified through a Facebook update alerting them where and when to sign up to receive Sears email offers and order their free $5 gift card. If an eligible fan does not sign up within the specified time period referenced in the notification, they will forfeit their card. Sign-up will be open for twenty-four (24) hours only. The gift card will be shipped within 1 – 2 weeks. Gift card restrictions apply.

Just in time for Christmas – get a free $25 gift card from Famzam

Famzam is a new social networking site that is similar to Facebook, but geared toward families. They are offering a $25 gift card if you join and have 15 friends or family members connect to your network (your connections can already be Famzam members).

Here are the details of the promotion:

WHAT DO YOU GET?

The Famzam Team thanks you for test driving our Beta site and appreciates your help in continuing to spread the word! As a token of our appreciation, we are offering a free $25 gift card for a limited time. Once you connect with 15 family members and/or friends you will automatically be qualified to receive a free $25 gift card of your choice. There are 15 different gift card merchants to choose from, including ExxonMobil, Starbuck’s, Target, Best Buy, and Toys R Us, just to name a few.

The retailer you choose from is completely up to you! Not only will you be receiving a free $25 Gift Card, but you will be on your way to getting closer with your family and friends.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Simply invite and connect 15 family members and/or friends to your Famzam network, and you will automatically qualify to receive a free $25 Gift Card from a choice of 15 different merchants.

Famzam has teamed up with the premier promotion company Incentive Logic to offer this exclusive ‘Giftfolio’ incentive to our members. Once 15 invites become confirmed members in your private network, we will send you a ‘Congratulations’ notification that will be sent to your email in our database. This notification will include a live ‘Giftfolio’ link set up exclusively for Famzam members. Simply click on the link, fill out your information and select the Gift Card of your choice. That’s it… once the 15 members are verified, your new $25 Gift Card will be processed and sent out to you.

We hope this free Gift Card is a small help to you and your family during these tough economic times. So fill up your tank, have a few cups of coffee on us, or treat yourself to a little gift! Remember this offer is available for a limited time only while supplies last, so make sure to start connecting today. For more information, please see our terms and conditions or contact us at support@famzam.com.

Thrifty Thursday: Making your prescriptions "work" for you!

You may have seen those coupons in the paper advertising a free gift card for new and/or transferred prescriptions, but weren’t really sure how it “worked” or maybe it seemed to good to be true. It does work, and it’s very simple. I posted here about how I was able to use my gift card from transferring a prescription to buy groceries for almost nothing out of pocket.

Here’s what I do:

*Every time I see one of those coupons, regardless of the store, I clip it and hang on to it. Most stores (in my area at least) will accept competitor’s pharmacy coupons. This includes CVS, Walgreens, and all of the major grocery stores. Target (in my area at least) does not accept competitor coupons and I’m not sure about Walmart. If you’re a Walmart shopper, it’s worth calling and asking.

*If you’d like to transfer a prescription, all you have to do is call the pharmacy and give them the information off of your prescription (usually your prescription number, the old pharmacy name and number, and the name of the prescription). If you are planning on using a competitor coupon, you may also want to check and see if they honor competitor coupons when you call.

*Pick up your prescription, give them the coupon and you’ve got money to spend! Most stores will only allow you to do this once per prescription.

You probably want to weigh out the pros and cons of doing this. Many insurance companies offer a discount if you do a 90 day mail order supply of your prescription. My retail co-pay for a 30 day supply is $10. My co-pay for a 90 day supply is $10. Even if I pay $30 out of pocket to fill my prescriptions at the “Retail” rather than mail order rate for 3 months, if I have three $30 gift card coupons, I still come out $60 ahead, so it’s worth it to me.

Be sure to check your prescription benefits before doing this. Some benefits only allow for you to fill a prescription a certain amount of times at the retail rate before raising the rate or requiring you to fill the prescription by mail order. Usually, you have 3-4 times that you can fill it at the retail rate and usually, at this point, I’ve transferred the prescription everywhere I want to so that I can get a gift card anyway, so I just switch to mail order.

Get $10 in FREE Target gift cards

If you’re like me, you can always find a way to use a Target gift card! A few months ago, I joined a site called Lilaguide.com because they were offering a $5 Target gift card for writing reviews about places in your area. They are still offering this promotion, so if you haven’t signed up on their site already or written your reviews, you can find out how to do that here:
http://www.lilaguide.com/Promotions/

They now have a new promotion. If you sign up on the site and create a “group” and five other people join your group before September 15th, you will get a $5 Target gift card.

Here are the details of the promotion:

Start a free online parenting group on any parent-related topic or location that interests you, and as a thank you we will send you a $5 Target gift card!*

Perhaps you love to cook and want to share ideas for recipes (“start a group called Family Cooking”), or maybe you want to start a playgroup in your neighborhood (“Central Park Playgroup”).

If you get 5 members to join your group by September 15th, we will send you a bonus $5! (Use the “invite a friend” feature in your group to email your friends to join!)

Here’s how:

1) Log in to www.lilaguide.com – make sure your address is in your profile!

2) Click on the “Groups” tab or click here: www.lilaguide.com/groups and create a group on the topic or location of your choice

3) Email your username & group name to sguyton@lilaguide.com so we can track it


Thanks for your continued support,

The Lilaguide.com Team

*Rules: Promotion ends September 15, 2008. Members must be real parents with unique, valid email addresses. Reward applies to 1 group per person.

Feel free to post a link to your group in the comments here so that others can join!
If you’d like to join MY group, (please do!) you can find it here:
http://www.lilaguide.com/groups/crockpotmoms.aspx