swagbucks update: signing bonus!

you guys know that i am cheap by now, right? ;-) well, one of the ways we are able to live as generously as we desire to is by using swagbucks gift cards not only for the things we want for "fun" (think target runs and amazon movie purchases as well as my weekly or so trip to starbucks) but also for birthday and christmas gift money. last year we used swagbucks gift cards for approximately 65% of our holiday gift spending. when you have an extended family as large as ours to buy for that is HUGE!

clearly swagbucks is something i love. i understand that it's not for everyone, but for those of you who would like to try it i'm writing this post to let you know thati  have exciting news and a great opportunity for all of you to earn bonus SB -- enough to get a free $5 gift card!  

any of my readers who signs up for swagbucks.com through my link here between now and june 30th is eligible to get a 500 SB bonus! that is basically a free $5 gift card JUST for signing up through me. in order to get the bonus automatically*, you must also earn 1500 SB by July 14th. note that since this is an exclusive offer, you must sign up through this link and earn 1500 SB in order to get your 500 SB bonus. if you sign up elsewhere, or only do one of the two steps, the bonus unfortunately will not be available to you.  

so how do you get that 500 SB bonus? simple: you can earn SB from any of the earning activities found on the homepage or top bar of swagbucks.com (shop, search, watch, play, answer, discover, daily crave, NOSO & daily poll). i am also ALWAYS available by email to give you more tips on how to earn. i actually have a pretty effective system that you can use with whatever time you have, whether it be one hour a day or ten! if you haven't started earning with Swagbucks yet, now is a great time to sign up and check out all the different ways to earn Bucks -- all so you can get a bunch of free gift cards.  

* Please note that it may take up to 14 business days to credit your account once you have earned 1500 SB. 
**ALL links in this post have been linked so that you will receive the signing bonus...so don't worry about clicking on the wrong one! :-)

coming {very} soon: a few recipes that i've been making during the last few months of silence. also, more "only in lora's life" moments, more silly lists, more memories, and a couple of serious thoughts. maybe ;-)

swagbucks extravaganza TOMORROW!!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) Swagbucks is celebrating the month of January with a bunch of Swag Codes - if you can get them all, you'll have an extra 65 Swag Bucks at the end of the day!

They'll be happening all throughout the day at random times, so check their blog, Facebook and Twitter for potential clues.

If you have the new Toolbar installed you'll be able to check for Swag Codes all day long!

I've written several times about how much I love swagbucks, and y'all I promise it's totally legit! Through gift cards a large percentage of our Christmas gifts were FREE!

If you haven't joined Swagbucks yet, click any of the links in this post to join the fun and start earning reward points that you can exchange for free stuff like gift cards!

Use the code JANTASTIC during sign up - that way you'll start with 100 Swag Bucks instead of the usual 30. Enter the code exactly as it appears with no spaces.



  carry on :-)

thursday's ten or so: the swagbucks edition

since i'll be posting some of the great deals and promotions that swagbucks offers, i thought i'd do a quick post about why and how i actually use swagbucks.

first of all, what do i do to earn?

i utilize swagbucks tv.  for every 10 (short) videos you watch, you earn 3 swagbucks.  that doesn't sound or seem like a lot until you actually do it.  i'll often keep the computer handy while cooking or doing other things and click a new video every minute or two.

i click through the no obligations special offers daily.  i have never actually filled out info or submitted an offer, but i always earn sb for just clicking through for a minute.

i search -- and usually have 3 - 4 searches a day that yield swagbucks.  sometimes 6, other times as many as 25.

i answer the daily poll.  one swagbuck per day. easy.

i utilize swagcodes.  there's usually one a day or so, but some days there are multiples.  they're usually worth anything from 3 to 10 bucks apiece.  usually i follow sbcodez.com to get the latest codes (they have a twitter and facebook).  they aren't affiliated with swagbucks as far as i know, but they are the best i've found at getting them out quickly!

i occasionally will do a special offer.  they usually require a purchase, but if it's something i'm already buying why not?  they can be worth hundreds of swagbucks.  only if i'm going to buy something already will i bother, but if you buy any local deals (like groupon, living social or eversave) check to see if they're in the special offers.  currently it seems to be only eversave, but i think they cycle.

ok, but what do all these "bucks" buy?

tons of stuff.  however, i stick to one category: gift cards.

you can "buy" up to two rewards a day.  you can repeat the same reward up to 5 times in a month.  this year i'm focusing mainly on amazon gift cards.  the $5 ones are the best deals.  i buy 5 a month...that's $25 to spend on amazon per month.  do the math -- there's $300 for free.  considering the size of our combined families, i'm planning to buy most people's christmas gifts off amazon on black friday this year...and $300 will go a LONG way (if not all the way!)

there are gift cards for starbucks, paypal, maggiano's and a ton of other places i shop at often.  if i start earning enough swagbucks i definitely plan to buy a few of those as well!

the last few months i've maintained an earning average of at least 50 swagbucks a day.  in the future i'm planning to get at least 75 a day.  an $5 amazon gift card will cost you 450 swagbucks, so at the rate of 50/day i'll get a new amazon card in 9 days or so.

if you haven't joined swagbucks please consider clicking the link (it's my referral link) and trying it out!  i'll be happy to help you get started, and you get an automatic 30 bucks just for joining! :-)

more about that swagbucks thing...march swagness!

i've signed up to be a blogger at swagbucks.  don't worry, this doesn't mean that i'm going to post something every day (and probably not even every week) about the site, and you can certainly ignore these posts if you want to.  but sometime this week i'll be posting how i'm using swagbucks this year, and why you may want to as well :-)  if you're interested, click one of the links above.  i'll get a referral for your click if you sign up, and you'll get to start earning things like free amazon gift cards, starbucks, or other cool things.  more about that on thursday!

for now, i'm going to let you in on a sneak peek -- this is directly copied from an email i received this morning about something cool that starts tomorrow!

March Swagness has come to Swagbucks - it's all about you earning bonus Swag Bucks while doing all of the things you’re already doing on Swagbucks. Every day they’ll give you an earning goal, which you’ll find on their homepage. As you earn Swag Bucks throughout the day, that meter will fill up and when it’s full, you’ll have earned your bonus for the day. The bonus will always be 10% of that day’s goal. 

Be sure to check in everyday, as the earning goal for any given day could be higher or lower than the day before. Your total bonus amount will continue to accumulate each day, and your bonus amount will be applied at by April 5th – this special promotion runs through April 2nd. If you hit the earning goal every single day of March Swagness, your bonus amount will be doubled!

EVERYTHING you earn on Swagbucks counts towards March Swagness – including (but not limited to) Search,Surveys, Tasks, Swag Codes, Special Offers, Referral Bucks, Winning TTPTP, Hashtag and Comment hookups – if you earn it from us, it counts towards the day it was earned!

Get your March Swagness on starting tomorrow, when the goal will be 50 Swag Bucks