Swagbucks: How does it work?

I have mentioned several times about something called "Swagbucks". I was introduced to it through a friend on Facebook, and decided to give it a whirl. If you haven't heard of it before, or you've seen it mentioned on different sites, you might be confused about what it is. It's a free program you sign up for, and then earn "swagbucks" in various ways. The most common way is when you use their free search engine and are randomly awarded "swagbucks". You then redeem your swagbucks at "The Swag Store", my favorite items being the $5 Amazon gift cards, which are only 450 swagbucks each. Since I started using Swagbucks at the beginning of July, I have earned enough swagbucks to redeem for almost $50 worth of Amazon cards.


So how do you earn points? First, you have to sign-up. Then....

• Make the Swagbucks free search engine your homepage, and use it for all your daily searches. I win swagbucks for things as basic as "facebook", "gmail", "Money Saving Mom", and "Frugal Girls", which are all sites that I go to on a daily basis anyway. You don't win on every search, but I easily win 20-30 swagbucks a day this way.
• Refer swagbucks to your friends, family, and co-workers, and when they sign up, you earn extra points. (For example, if you click on any of the links in this blog to sign-up, I will earn some extra swagbucks. Then you get your friends to sign up under you, and you get extra swagbucks...)
• Catch "freebies", which are Swagbucks codes posted on their blog, Facebook, or tool bar.
• Participate in the daily poll or a survey, and you win extra points.

Those are the basic ways to earn swagbucks. Once you're ready to redeem your points, you can visit what they call "The Swag Store" to see all available prizes. Gift cards are actually "e-cards", so they will be posted to your account, not physically mailed to you. I have already typed in my e-cards to my amazon account, so I now have a positive balance in my account that will be good towards my next purchase! This will be great with Christmas right around the corner, as well as a growing baby boy who keeps me on my toes finding new ideas for foods, toys, clothes, and books! (and if you haven't signed up for "Amazon Mom" yet, you need to! You get 3 free months of Amazon Prime, which means free shipping on all Amazon orders!)

If you have any more questions, let me know!

FREE "Amazon Mom" Prime Membership for 3 months

Amazon is offering a FREE Prime Membership called "Amazon Mom" to all caregivers (not just moms). Once you've signed up, you can also add another member to the account, so I added my husband.

I am excited about this freebie, because I've been earning Amazon gift cards through Swagbucks, and I've earned almost $50 since the beginning of July. I've found a few things I would love to order, but I was waiting until I had $25 to qualify for their free shipping. Now I don't have to wait! And this will take me right until the beginning of December, so I might be able to order some Christmas gifts with free shipping, too!

Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

New Target Apparel Coupons

There are new Target coupons for apparel! Every time these have been available this summer, they have matched with some great sales/clearance. But make sure to print them as soon as you can, because they go quick! This month the coupons are:

• $2 off kid's denim apparel item
• $2 off any Merona accessory
• $3 off Merona dress (am I smelling a cute sundress on clearance?)
• $3 adult denim clothing item

Thrift Store Trip

Today I visited a local thrift store (the Village Discount Outlet), which is by far the largest thrift store/resale shop that I have ever seen. Over half my wardrobe probably comes from there, as well as probably almost all of my son's. In the last two weeks, along with cutting his 3rd tooth, Levi has taken a growth spurt. Quite a few of his one-piece rompers and onesies are having a hard time snapping, without me pulling and tugging and stretching them first. And for a little boy trying to master the art of crawling, having a tight outfit on isn't his favorite thing. So it was definitely time to visit The Village again.

And while they didn't have very many boy onesies or cotton sleepers for this next size, I used my ever-growing imagination, and found two-piece pajama sets, pajama tops that can go with cotton pants we already have, long sleeve shirts (instead of long-sleeve onesies) to go with a couple pairs of jeans I got from a lady earlier this week (who has a son just a few stages ahead of Levi), and some lightweight fleece sleepers as the nights (hopefully) start to get cooler.

The grand total? $16. Yep, that's right. 5 fleece sleepers, 1 pajama set, 6 longsleeves, 3 onesies, 2 short sleeves, and 1 polo romper, which makes 18 pieces of boy's clothing, and the total was $16. How is that possible? I like to go on Thursdays, because at the Village, not only are things marked decently low anyway, every week they change "half-price" tag colors, and for some weird reason they change the colors for the "week" on Thursdays. This week anything with blue or green tags were half-off. So I looked exclusively for those colors.

Crawling, walking, cool weather, and playing outdoors in the fall, here we come!

Saving Cents on Scents & Shaving

If you got last week's Sunday coupons (8/22), then you might have clipped some of the coupons I used on a Target trip last week. Target's coupon policy allows you to "stack" a Target Coupon with a Manufacturer Coupon. Before learning this policy, I rarely shopped for household goods like cleaners, food, or toiletry items because I think their regular prices are kind of high. Well, since starting couponing, I have gotten quite a few fantastic deals. Here's last week's steals:

Airwick Twin-Pack: On Clearance for $3.48
Used $1/1 Airwick Twin Pack from SS (date unknown)
Used $1/1 Airwick Twin Pack from Target
Total Price: $1.48


Glade Premium Room Spray: $2.79
Used $1/1 Glade Fall Seasonal Item from Target
Used $1/1 Glade Premium Room Spray from here (to avoid looking through tons of pages, just click on the glade savings on the left-hand side of the page)
Total Price: $.79 each (bought 2)


Skintimate Shaving Gel: $2.24
Used $1/1 Target coupon from 8/22 SmartSource
Used $.75/1 from SmartSource (date unknown)
Total Price: $.49 each (bought 2)


Edge Shaving Gel: $1.97

Used $1/1 Target coupon from 8/22 SmartSource

Used $.75/1 from SmartSource (date unknown)

Total Price: $.22 each (bought 1)


Total Target Trip: $4.90 (including tax)


Check out the Target because there have been some great coupons I have printed every time they put them out, like:

•  $1/1 Chef Boyourdee, which makes cans of Ravioli completely FREE
• $.50/1 SoBe, which you can print two per computer, stack them with a B1G1 from Sobe's Heads or Tails game (you can play once a day for free, but it ends soon)
• $.50/1 PaperMate products, for cheap or free pens (I bought 8 free packs while they were on sale for $.50 and donated them to our church youth group)
• $1/1 Bic Stationary Product, stacked with $1/2 Bic Stationary Coupon, for more free or cheap pens (donated several more free packs to the youth group)

Fun Freebie: Cookies for Kids!

As I was blogging for my post earlier today, I was surfing the Giant Eagle website (one of our local grocery stores) for their coupon policy. I discovered a fantastic deal I look forward to registering Levi for next year: for $1 (100% goes to local children's hospitals), you can get a "cookie card" for your child (12 & under) that is good for the whole year, and every time you go grocery shopping, you can stop at the bakery, show them the card, and your child gets a free cookie!

I remember doing this as a child, and how excited my sisters and I were when we went grocery shopping with my mom, because we'd get to go pick out our free cookie. My favorite was a shortbread type cookie with nuts, hollow on the inside, and dipped in chocolate on the outside.

Did any of you ever get a free bakery cookie when you were a child? What was your favorite?

Sunday Savings

Today after church, my husband stopped at Giant Eagle with me to pick up groceries. I have been watching the weekly ads, and planning my trips for when things I want to stock up on are on sale, and I can take advantage of Giant Eagle's coupon doubling policy. This time I also was able to use a few eOffers that I had loaded to my GE Advantage Card. After two months of couponing, I am finally starting to see savings. Because now I'm not only getting great deals on things I need for this week, but I've also started being able to stock up for the future, when I can get things now for a great price. We are stocked up on basics like toothpaste, razors, contact solution, cereal, toilet paper, paper towels, soup, snack bars, mac & cheese... Yay!

So here is today's shopping spree (I won't always remember the exact coupon date/source-I'm still learning this blogging thing) Any coupons under $.99 were doubled: 

Select Always or Tampax: 3/$8
Used $1/1 Always Pads from 8/29 P&G
Used $1/1 Tampax from 8/29 P&G
Used $.55/1 Always Liners from 8/29 P&G
Total: $1.63 each


Kraft Macaroni & Cheese: 10/$10
Used $.55/2 from Kraft's Game (printed twice by pushing the back button on my browser)
Total: $.45 each box (bought 4)

MultiGrain Cheerios: 4/$10
Used $.75/1 from here (printed twice)
Stacked with $.75/1 from Giant Eagle eOffers (no longer available)
Total: $.63 each (bought 2, for my cheerio eating machine named Levi)

Giant Eagle Farmer's Market Salad: 10/$10
Used $.50/1 from Giant Eagle eOffers (no longer available)
Total: $.50 each (bought 1)

Ken's Dressing or Marinade: 2/$3
Used $.55/2 on Ken's Salad Dressings from previous SS (date unknown, maybe 8/22?)
Used $1/1 on Ken's Marinade from same source as above
Total: $.95 each for dressing, $.50 for marinade (bought 3 total)


Campbell's Chunky Soup, Hearty Request: 8/$10
Used $.50/1 from Campbell's (printed two from my laptop, two from my husband's)
Total: $.25 each (bought 4)


Tyson's Chicken Nuggets: $5.99
Used $1/1 from 8/22 SS
Total: $4.99 each (bought 1--my husband loves an occasional dinner of mac& cheese with nuggets)

Shopping Trip Total: $16.02 (including an additional $1.42 taken off from "FoodPerks")

A Cup of Morning Coffee!

As a friend in college jokingly told me, I like my coffee so "blonde" (with cream), that it's albino! And it's true. I especially love flavored creamers. I discovered this summer that Coffee Mate has coupons at their website regularly. My favorite is the $.75/1 coupon. You have to give your email address (which is another time when having an email address for coupons/freebies is very handy), and if you hit the back button, you can print the coupon twice. I have been able to print this off every month this summer. I use this at Giant Eagle (which doubles coupons under $.99) or Walmart, and am able to feed my addiction for a lot cheaper!

To make this even sweeter, I discovered a few weeks ago that using the baby food processor someone gave us (which is great for small amounts), makes a very frothy, sweet morning treat! I only drink one 12oz. cup of coffee every morning, and this has made my morning routine really fun! I added up the calories the other day, and it's only 120 (which I think is pretty good for a coffee treat compared to coffee-house calories). I add two tablespoons of flavored creamer (70 calories) and 1 tablespoon of caramel topping (50 calories) to my cup of coffee, then blend it for thirty seconds, which gives me a very frothy cup of coffee! A normal counter-top blender would work, too, just a little harder to clean quickly! I do that when making an blended ice coffee treat.

What are some coffee/hot drink treats that you've learned how to make at home?

Sunday Newspaper

This week has been full of grocery shopping trips (and found some great deals!), meal planning (and cooking), baby food (tried a new recipe for biscuits this week), and a random garage sale. While I intended to blog about all of that, it hasn't happened yet, but I did want to give everyone the heads up that this Sunday's newspaper is a great one to buy if you don't always get a paper. The P&G insert is only put in once a month, usually on the 1st Sunday (so I'm guessing since next week is a holiday and this Sunday is a 5th Sunday, they decided to put it in early?) and is filled with high-dollar coupons. If you're wondering what's in it, here's the previews for the various coupon inserts:

• SmartSource (SS)
• Red Plum
• P&G Insert

If you don't get the RedPlum (the Cleveland Plain Dealer doesn't carry it), don't forget that you can find out where you can get it, and if it isn't local, you can request it to be sent to you. I have, and I'll let you know once I start receiving it, or if I don't get it...

And have you signed up for P&G Brand Sampler? This summer I have already been able to request a free Gillette Fusion Razor, travel size Pantene ProV shampoo/conditioner, and multiple other smaller samples, along with receiving coupons in my mail. Definitely worth the few moments to get signed up! I love signing up for stuff directly with the company vs. unknown third party groups. Oooh, one other favorite high-dollar free coupon booklet: Home Made Simple. I got mine in the mail, and it has great coupons for Febreeze, Dawn, Cascade, Swiffer, etc...

Have a great Saturday! If I get stuff done around the house, I will try to blog more about this week. Right now I'm going to fold laundry on the floor with Levi, and we're going to watch old Disney cartoons (I bought a bunch on VHS yesterday at a garage sale).

Recycling I didn't know about...

Somehow in the last year I became a lot more "green" than I ever thought I would be. Through the experience and advice of friends, we have been using cloth diapers for over three months now (which means we're now in the saving money phase of it, since it costs a little bit to start up). We started doing recycling through our garbage company over the winter, and I've been learning how easy it is to bring my own reusable bag into a store when I'm just picking up a few things. And with making my own baby food, I don't have dozens of little jars hanging around.

But I learned two new tricks this summer about things that I didn't know I could recycle. Baby swim diapers and kitchen sponges.

Swim diapers, which run anywhere from $8-$10 for a pack of only 12 diapers, can be reused. And it's actually pretty simple:

1. Let your kid have fun in the pool. If it's only wet, then just slide the diaper off (instead of tearing off the sides).
2. Throw it into your wash with the rest of your laundry/baby clothes.
3. Instead of putting it into the dryer (it will get crunchy), just let it air dry by placing it over a canned good, bottle of something, etc...
4. Reuse (which means you only have to buy one pack for probably most of the summer)

The second thing I've learned about reusing is kitchen sponges. They say you're only supposed to use it for a week, but who can keep up with that? Anyway, I can't stand it when my sponge gets all stinky and mildewy, and it's still pretty much brand new. But I always end up throwing it out because it's makes my hands stink. Well, if it gets stinky, just put it in the silverware tray in your dishwasher when you run a load of dishes, and it returns to being clean smelling. Of course once the sponge gets grungy, throw it out!

What other household tricks have you learned to stretch the dollar a little bit more?