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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 25 2010 at 5:42pm | IP Logged
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dakotamidnight wrote:
momwise wrote:
dakotamidnight wrote:
We got all our MSB DVD's on amazon - I buy everything I can on there with gift cards earned from various places.
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Totally off topic but how do you "earn" Amazon gift cards? |
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I do a lot of online surveys with various sites and do my online searching through swagbucks.
They all pay in Amazon.com gift cards - I get around $600 a year or so in gift cards, which pays for almost all of our home schooling needs, the rest I fill in with books from the thrift shop, library book sales or that I get through bookmooch. |
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CandaceC wrote:
Wow! I do online surveys and swagbucks and have never gotten that much in a year...I must be doing something wrong!! 
Thanks for the tips, ladies...yes, I was referring to the Magic School Bus dvds, I'd like to just buy all of them, but it might be better to buy one here or there as we can afford it. |
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I do Swagbucks and the most I can redeem in a month totals $25 - 5 $5 cards (it's the best deal for the swagbucks traded in though I COULD trade in for higher denominations (but it's also more swagbucks per $ that way...) and get more per month.
I would love to hear of other ways to earn points...
I know some people have credit cards that earn Amazon points. (I use one that earns cash back, and it's decent so I'm keeping it that way!)
Some Catholic review programs allow you to keep the product you've reviewed; one allows you to review 6 to keep each year and then you earn points on Aquinas and More for purchasing books.
Can we list those here?
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Garden of Francis
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dakotamidnight
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| Posted: March 25 2010 at 7:12pm | IP Logged
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I can post of a list of my various survey sites if it's okay with the mods - they do have my referral links in them.
I'd love to see links for doing book reviews!
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Chris V
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| Posted: March 25 2010 at 7:16pm | IP Logged
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... just popping in here to hear all about the good ways to earn free stuff !
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Chris
Happy Wife with my Happy Life
Mama to My Five Girls ('04~'07~'09~'11~'11) 
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CandaceC
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 6:58am | IP Logged
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Can I ask what you are doing on swagbucks to get $25 per month? I have just started with them and don't have many points...
I've noticed their search bar also isn't very good, which makes me not want to use it...
I'm just not sure what the best ways are to earn points.
Help!
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 7:54am | IP Logged
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Here is what I do for Swagbucks:
I have the toolbar built in (I fought for a long time, but it's really great when you have NO money and the ONLY homeschool budget comes from earning free things like this!), but I also have my usual google search next to my address bar.
The neat thing about the toolbar is that if I highlight text on a webpage, it automatically fills in that swagbucks search box. I'll search on there and if I don't find what I am looking for, I'll copy and paste it up to google. This still prompts enough searching to earn 10-20 points (sometimes more) a day without trying too hard. Hopefully, this will also help them further develop their search engine (because it's not that wide, which is one sense is nice - my website pulls up on their search MUCH higher than on google!)
There is also a little feature from TSG (the swagbucks guy) - when a new message is available, it lets you know - usually it's a place to find another code to enter. That's good for any number of points.
I then put them on my facebook list. (I don't do twitter but I could get more points that way)
Then there is the special offers page. Before I buy anything online, I go there to see if the store is associated with them. Recently I bought office supplies from OfficeMax, who I don't usually use, but they were having a great sale on some of the things I need, I have a teacher MaxPerks card with them, so I earned $20 on the card for purchasing paper, plus the usual credit for buying stuff through them, PLUS Swagbucks for going through the SwagBucks website. In the end, I came out WAY better than my usual sources!
I also decided to sign up for NetFlix recently so we could pick up some educational movies - went through Swagbucks, got a free trial and 750 swagbucks.
There was a recent concern about my credit report - I signed up for one of the monitoring services through swagbucks and gained 1200 points!
So there are little ways, and there are big ways.
Since I'm earning money for homeschooling stuff that we wouldn't ordinarily have, I will spend a few minutes online each day making it work. There are a few things that can be done everyday to earn a decent amount of points (search until you get that first award; a second reward is MUCH harder to get in the same day; refresh the toolbar everyday (good for 1-3 points); read facebook and the TSG board every day just to see if there are are code giveaways; do some of the quick re-doable special offers (like one that is just browsing special offers - take 45 seconds and earns 3 points)).
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CandaceC
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 8:03am | IP Logged
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Thank you so much!! I'm going to look over and try some of your ideas. I agree with you, it is worth it for me to spend a few minutes daily if I can get free amazon cards!!
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
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dakotamidnight
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:46am | IP Logged
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on a related note - would anyone be willing to sell their CHC items for Amazon.com gift cards?
I've got more gift cards than I need sometimes thanks to some very good surveys lately, and I need some CHC items that aren't available on Amazon.com.
I can get a list of what I need and post in it in the trading post if someone is interested.
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CandaceC
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:50am | IP Logged
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Ok, generally I'm pretty proficient at online stuff..and I'm feeling pretty dumb here...
But I can't find the TSG guy or the "board" forum or whatever...
thanks for any help. :)
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 9:58am | IP Logged
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Hopefully this helps: The homepage on swagbucks has the "blog". The TSG is on the toolbar for the most part and shows up on Facebook here and there too.
I didn't get it all at first either. 
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 10:02am | IP Logged
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dakotamidnight wrote:
on a related note - would anyone be willing to sell their CHC items for Amazon.com gift cards?
I've got more gift cards than I need sometimes thanks to some very good surveys lately, and I need some CHC items that aren't available on Amazon.com.
I can get a list of what I need and post in it in the trading post if someone is interested. |
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What do you need? We have a few things... Or perhaps we could do a trade another way.
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CandaceC
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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Ok, I think I am catching on. The TSG just pops up with your "bonus" points at random times...
And I found the blog, too. THANKS!
I've been doing MyPoints for years...and really it takes forever to get your points to add up that way, but I keep plugging away, because even every now and then is better than nothing. 
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 11:25am | IP Logged
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I just typed "mypoints" into swagbucks and got 17 points. 
I'm signing up for that one - as you said, better something here and there then nothing at all
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CandaceC
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 11:31am | IP Logged
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I am finding that a lot of the same point-earners at swagbucks, are also on my points...not sure how many of them you can do on both sites, etc.
But you do get points for filling out your profile, inviting friends, putting in their search bar (so now I have that one AND swagbucks, LOL) and then the purchases, etc.
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
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CandaceC
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 11:47am | IP Logged
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CatholicMommy had a great idea...if anyone wants to sign up for MyPoints (or swagbucks too) ask one of us for a referral email...then WE can get points TOO!!
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
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dakotamidnight
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 12:34pm | IP Logged
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CatholicMommy wrote:
dakotamidnight wrote:
on a related note - would anyone be willing to sell their CHC items for Amazon.com gift cards?
I've got more gift cards than I need sometimes thanks to some very good surveys lately, and I need some CHC items that aren't available on Amazon.com.
I can get a list of what I need and post in it in the trading post if someone is interested. |
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What do you need? We have a few things... Or perhaps we could do a trade another way. |
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I did a post in the Trading Post here:
I'm not in a hurry on any of it, but between finances and my health, I like to have everything ahead of time. looking to trade
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dakotamidnight
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| Posted: March 26 2010 at 1:40pm | IP Logged
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I can also give referral links for the following sites:
Mypoints
Swagbucks
Mysurvey
Hits4pay
Lightspeed Research
Yale Research
Youdata
A few of these pay in cash even.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Earning points for Homeschool products
