Swagbucks

For those of you who recently signed up and have asked me how Swagbucks works, here is a brief tutorial from my perspective. Don't take it as the be all end all because I'm just sharing how I personally use it but there are a lot of ways to get SB that I don't even delve into!

#1. SEARCH!! Search everything you do on the internet! By that I mean, when you are going to check your email don't go to the address bar and type in gmail.com (or whatever your email is), instead go to the Swagbucks search bar and type in gmail, THEN find the link and click. Some browsers all you to download the swagbucks search bar right to your window. Mine doesn't so I've just made Swagbucks my home page so anytime I open my browser (Safari) it automatically opens to Swagbucks. Then I have a bookmark for swagbucks at the top of my page so when I'm done checking my email and want to go to Facebook I click on the Swagbucks bookmark then search Facebook! Now this might seem complicated if you don't know what search bars, address bars, home pages and bookmarks are...find someone in your family who does and make them set it up for you :)

#2. COUPONS!! There is a website called coupons.com that you can download and print coupons from.  Well these came coupons are available on the Swagbucks website and you get 10 SB every time you use one! It takes awhile for them to show up but I PROMISE they do eventually!

#3. REFERRALS!! That's what you all are! Each time someone signs up under me I get a match of their first 1000 SB! And you can too!

#4. SWAG CODES!! I don't do these as often because they don't last very long. But if you like the Swagbucks FB page and sign up for their emails they will sometimes send out these codes that you enter on their main page for Swagbucks.

#5. SHOP & EARN!! If you do any kind of online shopping go through Swagbucks first. Then you earn Swagbucks for every dollar you spend.

Those are the main things I do. There are a lot of things you can use your Swagbucks to purchase but I stick mostly to Amazon, Walmart and Target Gift Cards. You can get a $5 Walmart or Target gift card for 500 SB. (Amazon $5 is only 450 SB)

A few things to note:
1. It takes a few weeks to get your gift card so I usually "order" it as soon as I get to 500 SB. You will get an email saying that it is ready in your account and you can either print it out or use it online or on your smart phone.

2. Don't get discouraged if you don't start earning SB right away! I've found that the longer I use it the more often I earn them. I've been using Swagbucks to search for over 3 years. When I first started it seemed like I maybe earned them twice a week and now I earn them 3 or 4 times a day. (although I do spend a lot of time online :p)

Let me know if you have any questions! I'll try to help if I can :)

Cheap is great but FREE is better!

So instead of just obnoxiously posting pictures on facebook of the stuff I'm getting free I figured I would post them here with links to the coupons. 99% of my info comes from Pocket Your Dollars.

Here is my latest find:

Marzetti's Caramel Dips. There are a few different kinds and right now they are 2/$4 at Cub (don't know how long that's going to last). Here is the link for $2 off 1. Most computer will let you print 2 coupons. http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=Q5YVMYY3H2BHW

A few things from this photo (the other stuff I had to double coupons to get free):

Kikkoman Fried Rice Seasoning (there are other seasonings too) $.89 at Rainbow. This coupons is for $1 off any Kikkoman product. http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=VPMTXIMHXGV3W

Duncan Hines Frosting Flavor Packets $.99 at Rainbow this coupons is for $1 off.

http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=JBHLRUTBE2ZSI

Another one I just got but didn't take a picture of is Mountain Dew Kickstart. I guess it's a new kind of Mountain Dew?? Anyway, I got mine at Rainbow but I've seen it a bunch of other places for $.99 and this coupon is for $1 off. http://msm.mysavings.com/offer/offer.asp?id=11469

Saturday Steals-My new part time job...

I love couponing. I have for awhile but recently I started watching "Extreme Couponing" on Netflix. It's pretty crazy! But I got a lot of good tips. I've had some pretty great savings in the past but today was my biggest. Still nothing compared to those ladies on TV but I'm pretty excited about it! Here's how my Saturday went down...

Rainbow was having Double Double Daze which means they will double up to 10 manufacturer's coupons. I don't normally shop at Rainbow because I feel like they're prices are to high to begin with, but they had some pretty great store coupons which can be combined with the manufacturer's coupons that are being doubled. So I set to wrk this morning around 10:30 figuring out what I was going to get, what the best deals were and finding all the coupons I needed. Here is where I spent the next several hours.

Notice the two computers (this does not include the desktop that was also on)..that gray USB cord got quite a workout going from the printer to one computer to another and another then back again! I spent about an hour trying to print coupons from my Mac laptop but the only ones that worked were the Target coupons (and even those it would only print half of). Everything else printed TINY :( After a lot of struggling and some yelling (at no one) I drug out our ancient, giant PC laptop.

I had to print one coupon at a time but they were finally the right size and I got all the ones I needed! I looked through the online ads on the Mac laptop because the PC is about as slow as molasses.

Eventually I made my way to Rainbow and Target with my lists and coupons! Notice my Rainbow list is twice as long as the Target one. I ended up with 1 bag from Rainbow and five from Target! A lot of what I wanted to get at Rainbow was either already gone or not a good enough price even with a doubled coupon.

Rainbow was frustrating for me because I never shop there so I don't know where anything is. Plus I was nervous about all my coupons working. It took me FOREVER to find the stupid shampoo! It was nowhere near the other health & beauty stuff :( I finally had to ask a manager who was stocking shelves. He laughed and admitted that it was in a totally awkward place and said customers always have to ask where it is...this doesn't seem like a very good business plan to me...but anyway I finally found what I needed!

The retail value of what I purchased at Rainbow was $29.38 and I paid $15.22 which means I saved $14.16. Almost half!

Next came Target. I love Target :) I spend far too much time there but I know where everything is! I had already been to Target twice that week so I knew they had several $5 gift card deals which is one of my favorite things! My list was short but complicated! 

I needed to buy 4-8 Dove items to get $5-10 in gift cards and I had 8 coupons. HOWEVER, there were about 20 different items with all different prices that I could purchase for this deal. LONG Story (and a LOT of calculating) short...I ended up with 4 Body Washes and 4 two-packs of deodorant.  $34.60 worth of product and after coupons and gift cards I paid $15.60 or $1.30 for each item.

Then came the shaving cream. I got 5 cans, 2 of which were free, paid $2.09 each for 3 of them, had $2.05 in coupons which in the end means each can cost me $.84.

Next was the Garnier Fructis Shampoo and Conditioner. They were $2.99 each and I had $2 worth of coupons for each of them so I only paid $.99 PLUS I got a FREE travel size shampoo :)

And then there were the vitamins! I take 2 Vitamin D pills a day and I go through a lot of bottles a year so finding a deal on Vitamin D always makes me happy! I usually end up getting the Nature Made brand because they have a rewards program! Target had a special for buy 3 Vitamin D and get a $5 gift card. I had 3 coupons so in the end I got each bottle that originally cost $4.89 for $2.22.

I got a few other random things and used my two $2 gift cards that I got free through Shopkick, plus another $1.50 coupon.

I ended up doing 6 transactions so that I could use the $5 gift cards right away instead of bringing them back for my next shopping trip. I had to tell three different people who came up behind me that I was doing lots of transactions and they all thanked me and found a new checkout lane ;) The cashier was SO nice and helpful!

After all was said and done I got $131.60 worth of stuff (including my Rainbow purchase) for just $66.53. A savings of $65.07!! Just short of 50%! $60 still seems like a lot but I have to remind myself that the majority of what I got is health & beauty stuff which is typically more expensive.

There you have it! If you made it all the way through this I applaud you! I can't wait to do more couponing...now I have to go clean up my dining room floor...Here's everything I got!

Bedroom Redo

So weeks ago I decided to redo my bedroom. I wanted to do it for less than $50 since I had to use my own money. Plus I like a challenge! See the bottom of the post for my budget vs. what I spent!

I really had no idea what I wanted to do just that I was tired of brown and blue. I began perusing Pinterest and fell in love with gray and yellow.

Now one thing you should know before I start this before & after post is that I'm terrible about taking before pictures. I never remember until I've already started...

The Walls...

Started out brown (the blue flowers were only on this wall)

In process...

End result: gray!

The Curtains...

These were our blue curtains. Notice I forgot to take a before picture BEFORE we took all the drawers out of the dresser...The curtains we had before were a lot longer so I had to hang them up high. I've been wanting to lower them since I got the blue ones but I never got around to it. I was so excited to do it now and in the end I had to fold up the bottom of the new curtains because they were too long! But I wasn't ABOUT to move them AGAIN!

I had budgeted $10 for curtains from Goodwill. I wasn't sure if I wanted gray or yellow. I ended up with Cream and Gray. Since our blue curtains were lined I wanted to make sure I had 2 layers of curtains. I dyed the cream colored curtains yellow and sewed them to the top of the gray. Since they weren't as wide I got a nice set of gray "stripes" on either side of the yellow! :)

 Tada!

Like I said...the curtains were longer than I anticipated so I bubbled the bottom and it's being held closed by a t-shirt rose I never wear.

Over the bed...

I knew I wanted something over the bed. I searched Pinterest for a sign or clever saying and ended up with "You Are My Sunshine"...it seemed fitting with the yellow theme. I bought an old shelf at Goodwill for $1.49, took off the brackets and modge podged letters cut out on my cricut.

I had 2 white picture frames hanging over our dresser for years (only 1 had a picture) so I moved those, added yellow backgrounds and new pictures.

Before...

 After!

Over the dresser...

Like I said the two white picture frames were originally over the dresser. I didn't get a picture of them but you're not missing anything. I tried to hang them asymmetrically and it didn't turn out well, plus one was empty. So, what to put over the dresser now?? While looking through a box for a different picture frame I found a stack of small framed pics that I'd had hanging in our old house. The frames were from Ikea (the cheap kind that don't even have glass). I had stained them but I wanted to keep things mostly white in the bedroom so I painted them. Then because I'm lazy and didn't want to individually hang all the frames I glued them together!

The Other Wall...

I have to have my full length mirror and for most of the time we've lived in this house it's been sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. It was briefly hung but in the middle of the night it fell off the wall, scaring the be-jeebers out of us! 

The one picture that had been hanging over the dresser is one of our favorites so I decided to move it to this wall. I hung the mirror and frame with yellow ribbon to bring more yellow into the room.

The Bed...

I knew I couldn't afford a new comforter so I went back and forth about what to do. I considered trying to dye our old one gray but finally decided to buy some king size sheets and make a duvet. Let me tell you I was NOT looking forward to it but it was really my only option. So I budgeted $15 for sheets at Goodwill. I walked in and went straight for the bedding area and the first thing I pulled out was a king sized gray duvet cover. Yes. You read that right. Exactly what I needed...for $2.99! 

Our old comforter...

The new Gray duvet!

The Lamps...

I actually wasn't sure if I was going to change the lamps because it wasn't really in the budget but since I got the bed covered for $2.99 I decided I could swing it! I found 2 awesome white lamps at Goodwill but they didn't have shades so I ended up getting shades at Walmart. Believe it or not the lamps (including shades) ended up being my most expensive purchase.

The lamps originally had gold trim...

I painted it gray and put a satin sealer over it. It's not perfect but it works!

The Budget...

Here's how it turned out:

                 

Paint - 

(Budgeted) $15  (Actual) $8.97

Duvet - 

(B) $15 (A) $2.99

Curtains - 

(B) $10 (A) $9.96

Sign - 

(B) $2 (A) $1.49

Ribbon - 

(B) $2 (A) $.62

Pictures - 

(B) $2 (A) $2.94

Dye - 

(B) $2 (A) $2.87

Lamps - 

(B) $0 (A) $5.98

Shades - 

(B) $0 (A) $9.94

Total Budgeted = $48/ Total Spent $45.76

There you have it! I love all the new stuff. Jarrod hates the gray. That's life :) 

There's an app for THAT too!

My latest favorite money saving app is called...

Ibotta
This app is full of coupons! Here's the basics:

Choose an item in the list of 50+ and picks ways to earn. Some of them have quick one question surveys, some have a short video to watch, some you can share on facebook. You pick and the money adds up.

THEN, you shop! When you purchase things on your list you take a pic of your receipt with your phone then scan the items barcode and BOOM the money enters your account! It's a few steps but honestly the coupons are really good! I got free chapstick!!

You get $5 just for signing up and $1 for every person you refer.

Click on the name above to join!!

There's an app for that!

I've been encouraged by some friends to blog again. And since I'm always insisting they try new money saving apps they suggested I write a post about them so all the world can join in the fun! :)

Let's start with...

Shopkick

So far I've had this app for 3 months and I've earned $20 in Target Gift Cards. There are other gift cards you can get but since I frequent Target I found them to be the most valuable. It takes 500 "kicks" (which is just a fancy name for points) to get a $2 Target Gift Card. I'm terrible about saving up my gift cards so I basically use them as soon as I get them and just look at it as a $2 coupon off my grocery bill.

The app can be a little tricky to figure out at first but once you get it, it's super easy! There are 5 ways to earn kicks (I only use 4 of them)

1. Walk in the store. Yes it's as easy as that. Just make sure your ShopKick app is open, walk in the store and boom you get kicks! It can be anywhere from 25-200 kicks.

2. Scan items. For some stores there is a list of items you can scan as you walk through the store.

3. Flip through "Lookbooks". Each store on the ShopKick list has "books" you can look through. Basically just advertisements although occasionally there are coupons. The books with blue stars at the top have free kicks inside.

4. Bonus Board. To be honest I haven't totally figured this one out but occasionally something pops up saying I got kicks on my bonus board and I say "Yay!"

5. Spending Money. This is the one I don't use. If you link your credit card to the app then some stores give you kicks for spending a certain amount of money.

So there you have it! Click on "Shopkick" above to join!

Come back tomorrow (or maybe the next day) for another exciting app recommendation!

This poor blog...

...is so neglected :( I feel bad that I really never have anything to say.

Anyway, I started a new teacher blog that I will hopefully keep up with since it serves and actual purpose. Check it out!

School Age is a HOOT!