In the meantime, however, I've discovered several ways to earn online that helps defray the cost of my gift giving and I'm happy to share those with you.
Some of these programs are available only to a specific demographic or during an allotted timeframe, while others are invitation only through a current member. Regardless, I encourage you all to check out and apply for these programs, as you never know when a spot might open up!
Online Surveys
There are a bunch of online survey companies and some are better than others. Some let you actually earn cash for taking surveys, while others let you accrue points which can be cashed in for gift cards and other goodies. Here are the ones I use.
Pinecone Research is my favorite of all of the survey companies I've worked with in the past. I earn $3 for each survey or product trial I complete. You have the option of getting a check mailed to you each time you earn money or you can have it deposited directly into a Paypal account. I took a survey yesterday morning and got confirmation yesterday afternoon that my $3 had been deposited into my account! The best part of Pinecone Research is I actually get to test out some of the products, rather than just see pictures and read about them. I've tried drinks, toilet paper and even dog food (okay, my dog tried the dog food!).
Opinion Outpost is my second favorite of the survey companies. You earn points for each survey you complete and the points are equivalent to a cash value - 10 points = $1. They recently changed the redemption policy and there are pros and cons to it. There are more options now to redeem your points.
You can unlock an Alawar Game with a minimum of 30 points.
You can request a $50 Restaurant.com gift card with a minimum of 100 points.
With a minimum of 50 points you can donate $5 to the American Red Cross.
With a minimum of 50 points you can also get yourself a $5 credit to Amazon.com.
You can get a Citi gift card (like a cash card) for a minimum of 150 points.
You can request a check with a minimum of 200 points.
I'm pretty sure it used to be a minimum of 50 points for a check, but it was a pain in the butt to keep going to the bank to cash $5 checks. One major downside of Opinion Outpost is that sometimes you can get halfway through a survey and then it determines that they already have enough responses from your demographic and that you're disqualified. Some questions AND surveys are also very repetitive. On the flip side, even if you're disqualified, you can "spin" the slot machine to win points anyway.
ERewards is another survey program I use, however, the available rewards aren't as great as the two previously mentioned survey groups. I also learned that it takes a long time to earn enough points to cash in for anything. You can earn Hilton Honor points, along with a host of other hotel chain and frequent flyer points. You can earn yourself gift cards (right now Express is the only available one) as well as magazine subscriptions and the like.
CVS Advisor Panel is part of the CVS Pharmacy stores. It's great because I feel like I'm answering questions about something I know a lot about and that my answers might actually make an impact. And the icing on the cake is that I earn CVS Extra Care Bucks (ECB) for finishing the surveys! One con is that I don't get very many survey offers!
Online Point Accumulators
Some websites allow you to earn points just for doing random tasks. Eventually these points accumulate and can be cashed in for some nifty stuff!
Swagbucks is simply a search engine, like Google or Yahoo, but way better because you can randomly earn points called Swagbucks, which later can be redeemed for prizes. The simplest way to use Swagbucks is to switch your homepage to the Swagbucks homepage and use their search engine whenever you would have used Google or Bing or Yahoo or whatever. In addition to this, you can earn points by entering special Swagcodes which are left by the company all over the place like on their Twitter page, their blog or their Facebook page. You can earn Swagbucks by taking their daily poll, completely no obligation offers or by even printing coupons from their page then redeeming them at the grocery store!
My favorite part about Swagbucks is that for every 450 points I earn, I can get a $5 Amazon.com giftcard. I can't explain to you how many gifts I've gotten for free or really cheap on Amazon thanks to these gift cards! There are tons of other prizes, including gift cards, electronics, baseball cards, etc. available. The sad part, however, is that there's a limit to how many of a single prize you can cash in on during the month and it takes about 15-20 days for the gift cards to show in your account. They're typically e-gift cards, so you won't ever get a hard copy, just a code in your account to apply at the other website.
Superpoints is my newest addiction! It's another way to earn points that you can cash in for prizes, like gift cards. It's easy to earn these points. You get points for setting up your profile, referring friends, spinning the "lucky button" and watching videos. Points rack up quick, especially since once you hit a certain membership level (it took me a day) you earn points whenever your referrals earn points! Once you get enough points, simply keep ordering up those great gift cards!
The one key element to Superpoints is that it is invitation only, and each member only has so many invitations available in a given time period. If you're interested, here are some invitation codes you can use:
Invitation 1
Invitation 2
Invitation 3
Invitation 4
Invitation 5
Cash Back Websites
Believe it or not, some websites give you cash back for shopping at retailers THROUGH their website. This is great if you were already planning on buying certain items - you might as well just get a few bucks back here and there!
Ebates is sort of like a rebate website. You make a purchase at, for instance, Walmart.com, but you click on the Walmart website through Ebates' website and you land yourself 2% of your purchase back in your pocket. And I'm pretty sure that new members can earn themselves a $10 giftcard to one of a host of retailers by making a qualified purchase within a set time from signing up. I just got myself a $10 Home Depot gift card which will be a stocking stuffer for hubby (geesh, I hope he doesn't read this!).
ShopAtHome.com is very similar to Ebates, but they have Wild Deals which usually end up meaning you get your purchase for FREE (after you get your cash back check).
The reason I say cash back websites are good if you're already planning on buying the item is because it can take months before you get your cash back. ShopAtHome requires you to earn at least $20 before they'll send you a check, so depending on what you're buying, that could take awhile. They also only send out checks on a set schedule, so even if you're over the $20 minimum, it could still be months before you get your cash back.
So in all, these are just some of the many great ways to defray the cost of your gift giving. You can either give the prizes you wont to recipients (like a Home Depot gift card), or you can use the gift cards you earn to actually buy something for your recipients.
Let me know what kind of stuff you earn yourself for the upcoming holidays by using some of these methods!
Happy Couponing!
-Coupon Mama
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