Have you all seen those commercials for Coke Zero where the person is put into some crazy situation and then they drink a little Coke Zero and notice the and in the description, then start saying “and” and getting all these crazy things? That stuff doesn’t happen in real life. Right? That’s just some commercial mind’s crazy idea of what the melding of “Real Coca~Cola taste AND zero calories” can do for you. While I can’t vouch for the power of and in your soda drinking, I certainly can show you a way that and works in real life.
What I’m talking about is saving money with coupons AND earning Swagbucks. I’ve talked about Swagbucks a few times before, but, if you’re unfamiliar with them here’s a rundown. Swagbucks is a “paid-to-search” site, where you use their custom search engine, and occasionally win Swagbucks for doing so. They’ve got a bunch of other ways to earn Swagbucks, including taking a daily poll, watching SwagbucksTV, Tasks, and even games. One other way, that I’ve been taking advantage of, is their coupons feature. Using their coupons page, you print out coupons. They’re running the same system as Coupons.com, so if you usually use that, you’ll be getting the same coupons. The big difference here (the “and”, if you will) is that for each coupon that you print through the Swagbucks system, and then redeem, you earn 10 Swagbucks. Pretty cool, no?
Once a week or so, I’ll go through the list of coupons and print as many as we’ll use, then give them to my wife who cuts them out and sorts them for use. She’s in charge of that, because she’s got the coupon organizer, and is far better at actually remembering to use the coupons than I am. 🙂
My favorite use of my Swagbucks is to trade my Swagbucks in on Amazon.com giftcards. 450 Swagbucks gets you a $5 Amazon card. On average, I get a new card every other month. While it certainly isn’t going to make me rich, it feeds my Amazon habit, and helps me reduce my spending on books and such.
Give Swagbucks a try. (Join Swagbucks here.) After all, who wouldn’t like to make some extra cash and save with coupons?
If you sign up before April 2nd, 2012, and use the code MARCHSWAG during the sign up, you’ll get an added 70 Swagbuck bonus on top of the current 30 Swagbucks you get when you sign up, for a total of 100 Swagbucks to start off with.
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.
I tried it once and didn’t really go much for it. We’ll see, but glad it seems to have gotten better!
I love Swagbucks, but I find it takes too long to get anything substantial. I’ve had it for well over a year and only have 3000 swagbucks.
I use swagbucks on a daily basis. It’s an easy way to earn amazon giftcards that I use to buy gifts around the holidays.
@ Daisy – how much activity do you have to do on this site to get 3000 points?
I’ve been on Swagbucks for about 1.5 years. In that time, I’ve earned 4353 Swagbucks. Not quite 10 amazon $5 cards. About $45 in amazon cards, total. As far as activity, I have the toolbar installed on my home PC, and usually use their search engine first when I’m at home. A majority of my Swagbucks have been earned between the search, and coupons. You also get matching on the first 1000 swagbucks that your referrals get. So far, I’ve gotten 1045 that way.
I meant to add that it obviously isn’t going to get you rich. I despise programs that make you jump through hoops and such to earn points. I like swagbucks because I can earn points for doing things that I would normally do anyways, on my time frame. Also, I may have a small book fetish… 😉