Friday, February 21, 2020

Frugal Friday - Saving for Christmas 2020

(Note 1 :  my referral codes/links for grocery apps and Swagbucks can be found at the bottom of this post for anyone who might be interested.  Thanks)

(Note 2:  These are not for earning fast money, but consistently using them over time will add up!)


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Beginning on January 1st, I decided to see how much money I could earn using Apps on my phone, Swagbucks, selling on EBay, Pine Cone Surveys, etc.  The purpose of this is to save toward the cost of Christmas gifts in 2020, or at least put a chunk of cash toward it! 

In my planner I assigned a page to each source of income.  My plan is to update the page with the amount earned each month in 2020, so I can track the figures and also get an idea of what's worth doing and what's not worth doing.

Here are my current planner pages and the categories:

1.  Paypal

I started out with a balance of $198.53 as of January 1st.  I don't spend the Paypal money too often and it reached this amount over a long period of time.  Things that go into my Paypal account include things like payment for doing Pine Cone Research Surveys and an occasional sale on EBay or Etsy.   

So far since January 1st, I have added $12 from Pine Cone Research and $16.93 from Ebay sales (net after all expenses) So currently there is $227.46

The surveys earn $3.00 each and I usually do 2 or 3 a month.  Pine Cone Research is a great way to earn a little cash.  They have open applications every so often and you have to be accepted by them.  If I see that they are accepting applications, I will post it on here.  The surveys are easy to do and occasionally  they will send a new product for you to try out for free.  Then you complete a follow up survey which earns another $3.00. 

I don't sell a lot on EBay.  In fact this is the first time in a couple of years that I have sold anything.  What did I sell?  I don't use the conditioners that come in my hair color boxes.  So I had been putting them to the side for quite a while.  I had accumulated 11 of them!  They sell quickly.  Its not a lot of money, but they are out of my house and the money goes toward my goal of Christmas money!








I have some ideas for other things to sell on EBay, such as a dress that I bought a couple of years ago that still has the tags on it and I haven't worn.  It might be fun to see what I can get for it. 


I haven't had anything for sale in my Etsy shop in a very long time.  I would love to though.   Maybe soon!

2.  Amazon Gift Card Balance

This is by far the place that I accumulate money in the most.  I started out on January 1st with a balance of $210.53.  As of today I have $299.48.    The increase is made up of the following:

Fetch Rewards $10.00
Ibotta $20.00
Swagbucks:  $53.00
Amazon refund 5.95

I consistently earn points on Swagbucks which I redeem for Amazon Gift Cards!  Here's my Swagbucks Referral Link if anyone is interested:  CLICK HERE

The grocery apps on my phone are a source of income, but its slow.  Here are the ones I am using:

Shop Kick.  As of today I have 681 points which I earned since January 1st.   I need 1250 to get a $5.00 Amazon Gift Card.  The way it works is that you earn points (kicks) when you go into certain stores.  Then while in stores you scan the bar code of certain items.   Watching short videos earns a few points. You can also buy certain things and scan in your receipt for points.  I haven't bought anything yet that qualifies.  I'm only doing the things that don't require me to spend money.  So, at this rate I should have a $5.00 gift card in a couple of months.  This is REALLY slow, but its kind of fun to do and eventually there will be items that I would be interested in buying that would accumulate points much faster than just the scanning in the store.  So, I am going to continue on and see how much I earn by the end of the year.

Fetch Rewards.  This one is easy to use and earning a gift card doesn't take too terribly long.  You just scan all of your eligible receipts and if you purchase certain items you earn points.  If there are no eligible items on the receipt, you still earn a flat 25 points.  You need 1,000 points to earn a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card.  I started out on January 1st with 1433 points.  I cashed out for one $10.00 Amazon Gift Card, and after earning points since January 1st, I currently have 8,896 points.  I will soon have enough points for another $10.00 gift card.

Ibotta.  This one isn't as easy as Fetch Rewards, but I can earn gift cards pretty quickly.  I enjoy using it.  You need to activate the offers before shopping and I find that I already purchase many of the eligible items.  Sometimes it is for any item, such as any pasta sauce, or any oatmeal, etc.

You have teammates, which for me are friends on Facebook that also do Ibotta.   I didn't do anything to add them as teammates, they just showed up on my account.  To be on my team, use my referral code shown at the bottom of this post.  We can see what each of us is earning and help each other earn more!  I started out on January 1st with $18.71.  You have to reach $20.00 to cash out.  Since then I cashed out for one $20.00 Amazon Gift card and currently have $12.66.  I need $7.34 more to cash out for another $20.00 Amazon Gift card.

Other Grocery Apps.  The apps I am also attempting to earn money are Checkout 51, SavingStar and Coin Out.  I've earned gift cards before on Checkout 51 and SavingStar, but so far this year I have not earned anything.    I started out on January 1st with $9.50 on Checkout 51 and that has not changed.  I need $20.00 to get a gift card.  I started out on January 1st with $13.25 on SavingStar and that has not changed either.  I will keep an eye on SavingStar and Checkout 51, but they just haven't offered any items so far this year that I actually use.  I'm not going to buy something that we don't want or need just to earn a few points.  Coin Out is a new one I am trying and so far have $2.22.  Its easy to use because you just scan any receipt and earn a few points. There are other ways to earn money with Coin Out, but I haven't really tried any of them, other than scanning receipts.    It might not be worth the trouble, but I'll keep plugging away.  I have to reach $10.00 to cash out for a gift card, so at this rate it will take 10 months!

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If you would like to sign up for any of these Apps, I would love for you to use my referral Code.  It would be especially fun to be teammates on Ibotta.  Here are my codes, or links.

For Fetch Rewards use this code when signing up: B4AEN

For Ibotta use this code when signing up:  foujkwh

For Checkout 51 use this link:  https://checkout51.app.link/9JidDdPcg4,   or just click HERE.
 
For Coin Out use this link:  https://coinout.com/referrals/new?r=MGPHCWC   or click HERE.

I don't think SavingStar has a referral program.

I'm off work today, so had time to put this post together!  Have a great weekend!

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