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 :-)

coming out of my (you guessed it) sick fog to post some exciting swag news

seriously, i'm sick again. although i'm on the upswing now, i've been running a lovely fever and having general flu-like symptoms for the last 3 days.

BUT i just read this and had to come post it quickly.

Starting on November 1st, the Swagbucks Swag Store will be bringing you lower prices and limitless rewards. (and they even make sense now. $5 gift cards are 500 swagbucks, $10 gift cards are 1000 swagbucks, etc, etc. the only exception is amazon $5 cards which will still be 450 swagbucks!

You can now snag even more rewards, because the old monthly redemption limits (except the $5 Amazon.com Gift Card which bums me out slightly) will be gone. You’re still limited to 2 rewards per day, but you can get as many repeat cards as you want! 

this means i may actually get a $10 and $25 amazon card or two each month in addition to my normal 5 $5 cards. this means christmas shopping just got WAY easier. and free-er.

um, if you haven't signed up for swagbucks yet, you really should. click on any of the links in this post and (a) you'll start earning free gift cards by doing very simple things and (b) i'll get referral bucks when you search on sb!

oh, and there's a new program where if you go to stores you normally shop at (like itunes for example...) and purchase something you get swagbucks. it varies how many sb you get per dollar spent,  and you don't get instant gratification. but i just got 18 swagbucks in my account for using an itunes gift card (therefore spending NO money) to buy a 8.99 album last month. check out the shop and earn tab to see what stores are featured!

hey, it's ok (tuesday...er, wednesday)

hey, it's ok


...to be absolutely LOVING my new job and at the same time be absolutely EXHAUSTED at the end of some days.
...to be just now completing my list of 31 things to do while i'm 31 for the blog. yeah, i've been 31 for over 3 months now. one of the things should be completing the list i suppose.
...to have begun this list a week plus ago. did i mention i was exhausted?
...to be both thankful that i like the 4.99 whole bean coffee i found at whole foods and annoyed that i didn't try it a year ago. several pounds of 11.99 coffee from starbucks later, i would have saved a lot!
...to be grateful that it's finally raining again.  we went over a month in drought. our yard is finally not crunching as much when you walk in it
...to be swagbucks-earning like CRAZY these days.  so far i have $150 earned for the year in amazon credit, just by spending a couple of hours a day earning SB.  by the end of the year i'll have at minimm $300 to spend on christmas shopping for our family. that combined with black friday shopping means our spending out of pocket should be VERY small.  plus, i have enough extra to get a large starbucks or maggianos gift card for us! (you should join swagbucks if you haven't! please use my referral name of msmsctchr if you do, or click on this link!)
...to be seriously needing an eyebrow wax. there's a beauty school about 1/4 mile from work...i'm considering seeing if they'll do a decent job. because i hate tweezing. a lot.


join in the fun of being OK at amber's blog. or just visit her because she rocks.

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

hey, it's ok (tuesday) 3.13

hey, it's ok


...to begin this list on monday and publish it on wednesday (but keep the date as tuesday)
...to hope peyton signs with the titans...it would be nice to have him in town for awhile (especially while the colts rebuild which is code for 'suck for a few years')
...to be a slight bit obsessed with swagbucks. if you haven't joined yet, you totally should. (and if you click on that link i get your referral :-)
...to be oh-so-glad that spring has arrived in tennessee.  it was 80 yesterday. anthony and i had cocktail hour on our deck when we both got home from work. this is bliss -- when the temperature rises but the bugs haven't appeared yet!
...to have only just borrowed the first hunger games book.  hey, i still have not read/watched either twilight or harry potter (and won't) so i'm way ahead of my own game on this one!
...to make a recipe that flopped. i'm usually pretty confident in the kitchen and spotting recipes that anthony and i will both like, but the south indian mac and cheese (while it looked and smelled great) was just not our favorite. i'll still eat the leftovers, but i won't be making it again. (i put the link there since i won't be putting it on the blog, just in case anyone wants to try it...)
...to have a standing date with a friend to watch good bad tv 
...to just really be creeped out by some people


please visit amber's blog!

hey, it's ok (tuesday) 1.10

hey, it's ok


...to plot your next cooking adventures with a friend all morning
...to leave the baby in her pajamas until noon on a chilly dreary day.  i mean, it's not like we're doing anything.  i'd be in my pajamas if that were possible!
...to be hopeful that swagbucks earnings can pretty much fund at least half of christmas this coming year.  i have a plan, y'all. (and seriously, if you haven't signed up for swagbucks it's the easiest thing ever.  if you click the link above and sign up i get a referral! and i'll be glad to share my tips and tricks :-)
...to plan your meals out monthly.  it actually helps me budget wisely for groceries and eating out.  and so far we've come in under budget for groceries since we've been married so *something* is working.
...to be glad that my regularly watched shows are now spread out over several nights.  no boring evenings in the kitchen -- i can just turn on the dvr!
...to eat ramen and kimchee at any opportunity, which for me means when i'm at home for a meal and my husband is nowhere around.  he can't stand cabbage, much less the fermented spicy stuff!
...to not be able to resist creamy goodness.  my boss had ranch sour cream dip AND french onion dip in her fridge last week.  she had a bit less after i spotted them!
...to be planning to somehow re-create one of my favorite dips from trader joe's. i'm tired of spending the money on it AND running out quickly.  ha.  i'll share it if it's successful.
...to apparently be hungry as i write this since over half of my points have to do with food.  so i suppose i'll sign off and go make lunch!


(visit amber and share your own list)