Welcome to Week in Review!
Here you will find a re-cap of what happened in my household last week and the monetary impact to us.
Follow along with me and watch your earnings and savings grow, too!
Don't forget to track your own numbers, as it is fun and beneficial to know what is working for you!
Listed below is the total I saved or earned, the post that explains the details ( if there is one ) and then the method where I am adding this total for tallying purposes.
Savings
- $138 - 2 Brylane Home Free Salad Sets, Knife Sets and Utensil Set - Trial Offers
- $107 - Kroger - Grocery Savings w/ the Grocery Game
- $25 - Walgreens Gift Card - Prescription
- $4 - 4% Kroger Bill - Free Donations
- $2 - Upromise
- $2 - Clearasil - Rebates
Total Weekly Savings = $278
Earnings
- $493 - BlogHer, Linkshare, CPA Storm, Panther Interactive, YouData.com ( anyone can earn, not just bloggers ) - Affiliates
- $100 - JcPenny.com Gift Card - Swagbucks
- $10 - ING Direct - Bank Offers
- $9 - Big Crumbs ( get $ back from shopping even eBay )
- $5 - Stamps.com - Trial Offers
Total Weekly Earnings = $630
Grand Total Savings & Earnings = $909
Plus, what I did that will benefit me in the future:
8 comments:
hey carrie,
i love this part of your blog! I wanted to ask you...what mystery shop company do you recommend for food shops?? I love to eat out when we can and i wanted to use this as an option. Thanks!
Jackie
I use Swagbucks and earn a little, but you earn A LOT. How?
Elizabeth,
It is all thru refer a friends. For every friend you refer, you win everytime they win, up to 100 points. This can add up very fast.
Post your referral link on the bottom of your email signature. Everytime you email a friend, your referal link will be there.
In fact, send all your family/friends and email about the program before you set your signature up.
Put a referral on your Facebook page or My Space page. Anywhere you talk to friend, post your link.
Without referring friends, the average I used to earn was about $5 in Amazon.com a month.
Jackie,
It is going to be different based on where you live in the US.
For example, the company I posted about last week had local pizza shops for me...but probably wouldn't have that for you since a local restaurant.
My advice is to sign up for all the Mystery Shopping companies I have listed on my Mystery Shopping webpage.
I will keep introducing new companies each week, too, so as you get more companies you are registered with, you will find more and more with restaurants.
I am always surprised when people who are really into saving/making money choose something other than the Amazon gift certificates or Southwest Airlines gift certificates as prizes on Swagbucks.
For example, (unless I misunderstood) I noticed you received a $100 JC Penney gift card from Swagbucks (for 1750 Swagbucks), and I am just curious why you chose a gift like this, when you can get $100 in Amazon gift cards for only 900 Swagbucks (45 swagbucks for a $5 Amazon gift card * 20 = $100 in Amazon gift cards, for only 900 swagbucks)?
Is there something I'm missing? Should I be getting something other than Amazon gift cards? It seems like Amazon or SW Airlines are the best "bang for your buck", especially for frugal minded folks!
Thanks!
$ Money Savin' Momma $
Engineer a Debt Free Life (freebies, bargains, and ways to make money online)
http://www.engineeradebtfreelife.com/
Money Saving Momma
You are definitely right that those are the best bang for your buck.
BUT...in some instances, it is more "frugal" minded to get larger gift cards. Why?
In my case, my account was getting close to 20,000 swagbucks. Since you are only allowed to cash out twice a day...that means only $10 a day to Amazon.com at 90 swagbucks...I was getting overwhelmed.
I can cash out 90 a day, BUT I have more than 90 coming in a day...so my account keeps getting larger and larger even when I cash out.
Also, with Southwest ( I looked into them ) they will only allow you to use 2 giftcards per order. So, it would not be worth it for us to even buy those. Unless I could use more than 2 per ticket, it was cheaper for us on other airlines then for the flights we would need thru Southwest with only being able to use 2 gift cards. So, economically, that didn't make sense.
My husband and I sat down and determined it was not wise to keep all our money in points in Swagbucks. With it building each day and getting so large, if the company or site would go out of business tomorrow....those points mean nothing. I can't go to the government and say Swagbucks owes me 20,000 of points worth of Amazon.com gift cards. It would just be lost to me.
Since my account is growing so rapidly, we decided to look thru all the offers and see what was available. We were going to go buy a new mattress soon, and JcPenney sells them. So, we have decided to cash out for JcPenney and get a free mattress. Plus, I will still have enough to get MANY Amazon.come GCs.
So, for us, to not have to pay for a mattress is much more economical.
Even with cashing out for that ( and you will see many more on next week's review ), I sill am over 13,000 points again...so it is just snowballing for me.
Hey, thanks for the explanation! Makes sense - just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was overlooking! :)
Great blog btw! :)
$ Money Savin' Momma $
Great week, Carrie! I had another great week as well thanks to your Online Offers! Check out my weekly review post on my blog.
I will get my photo to you for the bragger post soon. I just never find a time where I'm presentable enough for a photo! :)
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