Paying for Christmas 2010

11 February 2010 2,830 views 10 Comments

I know you are all just DYING to know how I’m doing with my idea to pay for Christmas 2010 using Amazon Gift Cards earned through Swagbucks. Well, I’m happy to report that I now have $30 in gift cards saved up! Wahoo!!

Here are the details:

Before I told you all about Swagbucks, I had accumulated about 148 SBs on my own over the course of a year or so. I never cashed them in, because I didn’t really know how.

Then, I read a post on another blog about how you can’t just request a ton of gift cards all at once, so you need to redeem as you go. I found out that you can redeem your Swagbucks for 2 gift cards per day, AND they don’t always arrive on that day. Amazon posts gift cards around the 16th and 30th of the month (I think). Well, I started redeeming on February 2nd, so I still haven’t received my codes, but I know that I will!! THEN, I’ll enter my codes on Amazon and they will be deposited into my account and be ready for me to spend at Christmastime. SO cool!!

Since I told you all about Swagbucks, 20 of you have signed up, and you have earned me 164 Swagbucks just by searching the internet!! You know what is more interesting? Of those 20 who have signed up, 10 of you have NOT used Swagbucks as your search engine, so you haven’t earned any Swagbucks. So, really, 10 of you have earned me 164 SBs!! That’s pretty cool! Thank you so much!! That is the equivalent of over $15 in Amazon Gift Cards!

If you want to pay for Christmas 2010 using Swagbucks, this is what I would recommend.

Sign up for a Swagbucks account. It is totally free! AND, if you use my link, you can help ME earn Swagbucks! If you don’t want to help me out, then just find some wonderful blogger that you love and sign up under her SB account. I don’t care!! This is free money people, and I just want you to get in on it.
Next, be sure to download the Swagbucks Tool Bar so that your search box is always directing you through Swagbucks. If you sign up but never use SB, then you are not earning yourself any bucks. It looks a little wonky and it takes some getting used to, but when you see your little counter go up and up, you won’t care anymore. This is what my toolbar looks like on Firefox:

It’s not so freakish, is it? I just enter my search term into the upper right corner, just like I normally would while searching, and it brings up a normal looking screen with my search results in it. The difference is that I might have earned a Swagbuck!! Wahoo!

You can see where it tells me how many I have earned. Looks like I’m close to the next gift card! AND, sometimes you can earn bonus Swagbucks by clicking on the white envelope in the red square, reading the message, finding the code, and then cutting and pasting it into your “Gimme” box. To get to that box, click on the # of swagbucks you have in your “Kelleigh, you have 38 SB” bar. (Click on 38.) It will bring up your account screen where you can enter the code. I love grabbing extra bucks! There are other hidden messages, too, so keep your eyes open!

Now, start searching. Let’s face it: you probably already know the web address of your favorite digiscrap store and can type it up really fast. However, if you SEARCH for it instead, you could earn a Swagbuck!
Finally, tell others! I’m pretty sure that you only get bucks from the people you personally refer, and for only a certain amount of time, but it is SO worth it! Post on your blog and tell others about your goal to pay for Christmas (or a KitchenAid Stand Mixer or a new vacuum cleaner), and invite them to sign up for a Swagbucks account with you as their referrer! You can grab your referral code from your Swagbucks account by clicking on “Promote” at the top of your account screen. Super easy. Grab a button and put it on your blog. Sneak over to your inlaw’s house and sign them up under you (NOT that I have done that . . . yet).

Don’t you think this Swagbucks thing is COOL?! Oh, and I’m so happy that Target is an Amazon affiliate store! Hee, hee!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you help support this site! Thank you!

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10 Comments »

Sarah said:

Kelleigh,
I love your idea to save up enough SwagBucks to pay for Christmas… I’m stealing this idea, since I have a SB account, too. But I was wondering about the amounts on the Amazon gift cards. A $5 Amazon card is 45 SwagBucks, but a $25 Amazon card is 315 SB. That’s not proportional. If $5 = 45 SB, then $25 should = 225 SB, not 315. It’s the same with the $50 one, too. $50 should = 450 SB, but instead it’s 590 SB. Would it work out better to redeem SB for a ton of $5 gift cards, despite the fact that it would be a pain to enter all of them at checkout?

What do you think, since you are more experienced at using Swagbucks?

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
February 11th, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Well, I’m no pro, but I always redeem for the $5 gift cards. As soon as I hit 45, I redeem! And, notice that it says “on sale”? I don’t know if that is just a gimmick or if it really is on sale, so I’m redeeming as much as I can right now, just to be sure to catch the deal!

Yeah, so right now I have seven $5 Gift Cards (earned another one today!).

[Reply]

# 11 February 2010 at 8:12 pm

Pam said:

It’s definitely a better deal to get the $5 gift cards. The thing I love about getting the Amazon cards (vs. some of the other gift cards they offer) is that you can “stack” the cards. So all the $5 giftcards end up adding up to a lump sum. $35 and it’s only Feb! I bet you’ll make it!

[Reply]

# 11 February 2010 at 9:53 pm

mandi @ itscome2this said:

Loved this article. I already use SB, but I have the same goal - pay for christmas 2010 w/sbs!! However, I haven’t redeemed yet. I know I need to start b/c I just recently learned about only so many per month, etc. But you taught me something new about ‘stacking’. So is that something I’ll see through SBs or do I redeem them & then just let them sit with Amazon? Thanks for your help!! And good luck w/ your goals:)

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 9:36 pm

Mandi, you just grab your Amazon cards through Swagbucks (increments of $5) and start entering the Amazon codes into your Amazon account, where they start to accumulate. It’s pretty cool! I have $25 sitting in my account right now, and I’ll add my $35 (one code at a time) as soon as they are issued. Hopefully I will be able to restrain myself and not spend them before Christmas!!

Good luck with your goals, too!!

[Reply]

# 12 February 2010 at 8:11 pm

A Swagbucks Update: Paying for Christmas 2010 | Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs said:

[...] February, I shared a little more about what I have learned about Swagbucks (including adding the toolbar) and I reported that I had earned $30 worth of Amazon gift Cards from [...]

# 6 March 2010 at 2:21 pm

Sarah said:

Kelleigh,
I can’t find where to buy the amazon gift cards. I have 50 SB and from the posts above I read it says that you guys have been getting $5 for 45 SB. All I can find when I search is $5 cards for 450 SB. Am I just confused? Where do I go to get the cards you are getting?
Sarah

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:54 am

Sarah, they changed the swagbucks recently. Basically, they added a 0 to the end of all the numbers. So, I used to have 15 Swagbucks, but now I have 150. The gift cards used to cost 45, and now they cost 450. Make sense? It was weird at first, but I’m used to it by now!!

I suppose I should write a little addendum to this post, huh?

[Reply]

# 23 April 2010 at 12:04 am

The July Swag Bucks Update | Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs said:

[...] February - I had accumulated $30 in Amazon Gift Cards purchased with my Swagbucks. [...]

# 23 July 2010 at 11:36 am

The Swagbucks Final Count of 2010 | Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs said:

[...] Download the toolbar. Swag Bucks makes it VERY easy to make them your search engine of choice by giving you the option of downloading the Swag Bucks toolbar. Every time I open the internet, a little window pops up that says that I earned 1 SB just for using the toolbar! Woo Hoo! What is even better is that I don’t have to do anything special now. I just search like I normally would have back when I was using Google. Check out my computer screen. [...]

# 17 December 2010 at 10:39 am