REAL Ways I Save: Part One!

Whew! First post is said and done. Now, I can get down to what I want my blog to be more like. One of the things I really want to emphasize is that saving your family money doesnt have to be as extreme as what me and my family did. We dropped a cell phone, reduced his plan to very basic, got rid of my brand new car, coupon and no longer refuse help from others. We only did realistic things for our family and I encourage you to do the same.

Before I share some of my daily money saving activities let me tell you that I am the one who decided to be a "stay at home mom". My job is so willing to have me and work with my schedule that I do still work there two days a week, in the morning so I can always lay my son to sleep at night. I only do about ten hours a week but I love love love my job!! It is not the greatest but I love working with customers and its what I do to help bring in a little amount of income. My soon-to-be husband is the one who works 45-50 hrs a week to provide the wonderful life that we do enjoy! These are just little things I do for FUN MONEY! I don't make much and don't expect much but with the points or checks I do earn, we spend it on fun things!! Toys for our son, toys for him, bakeware and scrapbook supplies for me. What we enjoy to do, this little extra money gives us the chance to do! I always go into it with the mindset that whatever I can get doing a little at a time is good enough because its FREE! I never slave over these sites or spend hours trying to earn rewards. 

My FAVORITE program I am a part of, and totally thought was a fake or scam of some sort before trying it is Swagbucks!!

Swagbucks is an online search engine that rewards you in digital money, or "Swagbucks". When you join SB you will instantly start earning points for using their site as your portal into the online world. They offer Special Deals, Games, Offers, and polls to help you earn points that can be redeemed for merchandise.

HOW DO I PERSONALLY USE SWAGBUCKS?

I use their search engine. That is all. Instead if google I search through SB and will randomly throughout the day earn 'bucks. It is that simple. If you want more, you need to particapte more, of course, and that is easy, too. But for the most part, all I do is search through them. I earn approx. 500 points a month doing this. That is more than enough for a $5 AMAZON GIFT CARD (450 "bucks" to redeem) or a $5 PAYPAL GIFT CARD (500 bucks)!

Five bucks is five bucks, right? I did *most* my christmas shopping this way. No lie. No stretching of the truth here. I go through phases where I do NOT earn points, but that is because I kept forgetting to go to swagbucks.com to actually search. I recently decided to add the toolbar and I love it! I use it everytime I am looking for something, either in general or specific.

WITH SWAGBUCKS I HAVE...

Earned enough points for a 12 month membership to xbox live (he works hard and if COD: MW3 helps him relax afterwards and the baby isnt crying, he is allowed the living room television to play his games...). Earned $50 in Amazon gift cards spent on christmas merchandise. Earned $45 in Amazon GC that has gone directly to buying wipes and diapers!! Two Lowe's $5 gift cards, used for plants and seeds for my small garden. And a Starbucks gift card worth $5 for my favorite coffee blended treat!
This has all been earned since I first found out I was pregnant with my son in August of 2010... when, duh, I was freaking out about the cost of having a child! Now we use the points for, like I said before - FUN!, but the reason I started was to earn the Amazon cards to save on diapers!!

Fun Fact.... : My son was 7 months old before I ever needed to run out to buy diapers because I was out. I stocked up with sales and deals while pregnant! Risky, not knowing if he would be okay with each brand, but it worked out perfectly! With the next one I am hoping to be even MORE prepared!!!