Swagbucks 5th birthday blowout (and a HUGE bonus code for new members!!!)

Have you RSVP’d for Swagbucks’ 5th Birthday Blowout Feb. 25?

It’s easy to do, and when you RSVP you’re automatically entering yourself to win one of five $1000 CASH prizes.

The whole birthday celebration will be a big one – they’re giving out 135 Swag Bucks worth of codes, and they’re giving away four more $1000 cash prizes on the 25th when they celebrate.

You can find the RSVP link on the Swagbucks homepage – just look for the birthday image and click on it to be taken to the RSVP page.

If you’re not a member of Swagbucks yet, join me and use the code 5THBIRTHDAY during registration – you’ll start with 120 Swag Bucks! Just in the past week I’ve earned $25 in gift certificates just for using Swagbucks!!!! So click here to join – I promise, this is the web’s easiest way to earn gift cards, cash and prizes online!

Look at all I got for $25 from Vitacost! Here’s $10 so you can save too!

2013-01-23 20.31.01The local health food stores have nothing on Vitacost’s prices. I’ve paid up to $29.99 for just one bottle of the supplements here. But Vitacost offers its own discounted brands of the same supplements for a whole lot cheaper.

They also like to give you $10 just for signing up, as well as $10 for every friend who signs up under you. The $10 is in Vitacost credit off a $30 purchase. You can rack up your referral credits and end up practically shopping for free!

You can mix and match any Vitacost-brand products and get free shipping 2013-01-23 20.32.43with $25 in product. I had a $10 discount through Vitacost’s AMAZING referral program, so I got $35 in product for only $25! Now, what supplement shop has sold you THIS much stuff for 25 bucks? I’ve never found one; maybe you’ve been lucky.

In addition, Vitacost offers a wide range of natural and organic foods; the same non-perishable ones you’d find at your local health food store. The prices are often extremely competitive, and there’s ALWAYS a sale going on. They have brands like Kettle Chips, Annie Chun’s, Popchips, Tazo… lots of stuff! They also have a cruelty-free section with cosmetics and cleaning products. It’s a great place to go shopping!

To sign up and give us both $10 to spend on great products, click this link and get to saving!

Intro to Swagbucks: Yes, it really works.

Have you ever heard of Swagbucks? It’s a completely free, no-strings-attached site that rewards you for all of the things you’re already doing online.

Search, Watching Videos, Playing Games, Taking Surveys, Shopping and more – as you do these activities, you’ll earn Swag Bucks, which are reward points that you can redeem for all sorts of gift cards in the Rewards Store.

You can download their toolbar or download their OS and Android apps for more opportunities to earn. Choose the activities you like or have time for – how much you earn is up to you!

I’ve used Swagbucks for over a year and so far I’ve earned almost $500 in gift cards and cash just for doing things I normally do – mainly searching the web on my PC and my smartphone, clipping coupons and watching news clips and movie trailers. You can do the same!

To sign up for Swagbucks, click this link and join me. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the bucks add up!

How to pay off your student loan debt while buying stuff you normally buy. No, really!


Turn Your Everyday Spending into College Savings!

I can’t believe it’s been 17 years since I was filling out the FAFSA and applying for my student loan. I was certain that by now I would be making a bajillion dollars a year as a world-famous writer and that my education would have been paid off.

Um, yeah, of course I haven’t paid it off. Life happens. Hardships led to Forbearance and Deferment, and before I knew it, I found myself looking at my student loan balance ten years later and facing a balance that was greater than the amount I initially borrowed.

I’m being smarter about it today. I make payments every month. I make sure to pay off an amount greater than the interest tacked on to my loan every month. And this year, I started doing most of my online shopping withUpromise. And Upromise has helped me slowly chip away at that student loan and clear off a path toward debt independence.

It started out just as a site in which you could save for your kids’ or your friends’ kids college expenses. You’d sign up, you’d put in your reward cards, you might save a penny a year. Whoop-dee-doo. But a few years ago, Sallie Mae acquired Upromise – and the acquisition opened up a whole lot more opportunities and easier ways to save for college OR pay down your student loans through Upromise.

Here’s how it works now:

1) Open a new account at Upromise – The Smart Way to Save for College
2) While logged in to Upromise, you shop online from an overwhelming list of online retailers, including Best Buy, Old Navy, OfficeMax, Walmart, drugstore.com, Expedia, Sally Beauty Supply… way too many to name. Next to the retailer you will see exactly what percentage of your dollars spent will go back into your Upromise account. Stores can range from 1 to 25%, but are typically around 2-4 percent.

3) About 30 to 45 days later, you get money put back into your Upromise account.
4) Use the money any way you want – receive a check, open up a 529 savings account for the kids, or have Upromise make payments directly to Sallie Mae to pay down your student loan with Upromise.

Now, here’s the mindset you need to get into to rack up the money and pay off your loan sooner:

1) Take fewer trips to the store. So you have your list for the drug store ready. Let’s say you need deodorant, cotton balls, vitamins, shampoo, toilet paper and a bottle of Zyrtec. These are all non-perishable items you can buy online from drugstore, Walgreens or Walmart. By planning a couple of days ahead, you can buy that stuff online through Upromise. So stay in your jammies and shop online. Not only have you avoided the stress of having to wade through 12 different aisles to find what you need, you’re also gonna get some money back from it.

2) Buy online; pick up in the store. Best Buy started it and most merchants have followed: Buy items through Upromise for in-store pickup. Again, you are making an easier shopping trip for yourself and you are buying stuff through Upromise.

3) If you need it and can buy it through Upromise – The Smart Way to Save for College, do it. In addition to pharmacy items, you can also buy clothing, non-perishable food, electronics, pet supplies, contact lenses, baby formula, laundry detergent, baby and bridal shower gifts, basically anything that doesn’t spoil or melt can be purchased online. There will probably be a time when cold-shipping is more common and you can buy your cheese and deli meat online too, but we aren’t quite there yet.

4) Take advantage of free shipping offers. Many sites have a minimum purchase requirement to qualify for free shipping. It really doesn’t take that much to come up with $25 or $50 worth of stuff to chop off those shipping costs. Walmart.com is currently offering free shipping for all its pharmacy products and has a line of “Home Free” shipping products that come to you for free if you spend $45, so I’ve been going there to buy low-carb bars and snacks. I also use Drugstore.com to buy groceries, supplements, allergy medications. You just need a minimum purchase of $25 for free shipping, and it’s not hard to rack that up!

Upromise also has a “daily double” that is announced every day at midnight EST, in which you can get double savings from your purchase. It also prominently displays the merchants that will give you the most bang for your buck.

I’ve been using Upromise since the beginning of last year to shop for everyday items, and I’ve earned about $200 to pay down my student loan. Upromise makes payments to Sallie Mae loans on a quarterly basis if you get more than $25 in savings.

So is Upromise the way to get your loan paid every month? Not really, but it does help chip away at that loan a lot sooner. There are other ways to add to your savings. I do not recommend you get the Upromise Credit Card that promises you’ll save even more for college, since I think it defeats the whole purpose of paying down debt in the first place. But you can refer your family and friends to shop through Upromise and help you out. I haven’t had any luck with that; your mileage may vary.

If you get a statement from Sallie Mae every month and you are not signed up with Upromise, you need to get on that train and ride it now. Because I don’t know where you come from, but here, 100 bucks is nothing to shake a stick at.

You’re going to buy this stuff anyway; why not earn something from it?


Join Upromise!

Swagbucks announces more ways to earn gift cards, cash and gifts on the go

Are you on Swagbucks yet? Don’t you realize you’re missing out on the opportunity to earn gift cards, cash and other goodies on a regular basis?

Swagbucks has now become my favorite site to earn rewards. I can easily earn a $5  gift card at least once a week, just by searching the web, watching videos, taking surveys and doing other things that just take a few minutes out of my day!

I can’t say that about any other rewards site or app. I can use Swagbucks on my computer or on my phone when I’m on the go, and I promise you, the points add up quickly!

Swagbucks has just added a new way to earn from their mobile site: Special Offers, where you can earn a lot of Swag Bucks in a small amount of time. Just go to the “Earn” Menu and you’ll find them – you can choose from a bunch of different offers and they’ll add new ones as they become available. Once an offer credits, it’ll appear in your Swagbucks Ledger as “Special Offers: Trial Pay Mobile”. Offers can range from a few Swag Bucks to thousands of Swag Bucks and can be a simple as watching a video. Just check Swagbucks.com from your mobile device to get started!

Not a member of Swagbucks? Sign up for your free account with this link and earn with me!

I enjoy the benefits of being part of the Swagbucks Influencer Program through sharing information on new site features to my readers. All opinions are my own.

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