2/15/12 Swagbucks Update

Today, I have officially been a member of Swagbucks for two months. I can't believe how much I have earned in such a short amount of time! Here is a screenshot of all the gift cards I have redeemed since becoming a Swagbucks member:

Allow me to do the math for you: in two months, I have earned $100 in Amazon gift cards and $5 in Barnes and Noble gift cards! Let me explain why I choose the gift cards I do. The $5 Amazon gift card offers the biggest "bang for your buck" (in this case, Swagbucks). At 450 SBs, you are cashing out at 90 SBs per dollar. Since Swagbucks has a limit on the number of any one individual prize you can redeem per month, you can only take advantage of the best deal $5 Amazon gift card five times per month. Since it is the best deal, however, it is the first thing I redeem every month! Since my goal has been to earn us a "free" Christmas (free other than the time I spend on Swagbucks), Amazon is the best option for us. The Paypal gift cards would also be an option, but they cost more SBs for the dollar and pretty much everything we could ever hope to buy is on Amazon anyway.

Here is a current screenshot of my Swagbucks Ledger:

Note: This doesn't include any of my Swagging from today (except for
the automatic 1 SB I get for having the toolbar installed).

You can see, I currently have 3,598 unredeemed Swagbucks. I am saving up for the biggest Amazon giftcard I can get by the end of the month (probably the $50 one again). My lifetime Swagbucks earning is sitting at 14,728! I have earned 14,728 in 62 days as a member which roughly translates to 237 SBs a day. Using the $5 Amazon gift card as my rate of exchange (90 SBs = $1), I have earned roughly $164 or about $2.63 a day. Obviously, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but I will almost certainly reach my free Christmas goal!

What I love most about Swagbucks is that I can earn this extra money with very little effort. My total includes one credit card application and acceptance for a Discover Card. This netted me 3,600 SBs, but it was free and we can use it to earn rewards by buying thing we would buy anyway. I have also completed two paid offers -- one for a computer game and one for an online privacy service. The only reason I completed those offers was because the Swagbucks payout was more than I spent to purchase them, meaning I was earning more than 90 SBs for every dollar I spent. I've only done it twice because that scenario is rare, but it is worth looking out for!

How do I earn the rest of my points? I do my daily thing (see my post here). The surveys have netted me the most SBs for the least amount of time and effort, but there is an ebb and flow to the survey world -- sometimes I get offers, sometimes I don't. I don't waste my time with Swagbucks TV. Some people click their fingers off to "max out" every day (do the total number of rounds they allow), but I find this to be a major waste of my time. The payoff just doesn't outweigh the effort involved. I keep my eyes peeled for codes, search using their toolbar, and visit the Facebook group often. People regularly post about offers that worked (or didn't work) for them, so I have found out about some gems there. Mostly, it is a routine thing, but it really pays off! For a stay at home mom with a few minutes to spare here and there, I will be so thankful come November and December when we don't have to scramble for extra money from our budget. My Amazon gift card balance will be fat!

Keep a lookout for next month's Swagbucks update! In the meantime, become a member yourself using any of the links in this post :) there is still time to earn your family a free Christmas!

Disclosure: All the links to Swagbucks will sign you up through my account.