Christmas is fast approaching. 86 days to go! With all that our family does throughout the year, it’s hard for us to save money for Christmas. Although we don’t have a ton of people to buy for and I try to make several of our gifts, purchasing gifts can be hard on the budget.
I have found a couple great ways to save for Christmas, they take very little time and even better, no money out of your pocket.
Swagbucks is a search engine that give you “bucks” just for searching. I have their toolbar installed and every day they have a Swagcode, enter the code and win a buck. And since I search the internet all the time anyway, why not do a little earning why I’m at it. With the bucks that you earn, you can purchase gift cards or they offer tons of great prizes. You can sign up, it’s quick and easy, and start earning right away. I’d really appreciate it if you could use my code when you sign up! 
Although I’m pretty new to Swagbucks, and only have about 200 bucks, I have been a member of My Points for 2 years now.
Last year at Christmas time I cashed in my points and received 2 gift cards. I gave them to my husband to spend on gifts for me, I know, but our lives are so busy and he just isn’t a shopper. He took the boys and they picked out some really nice gifts and I didn’t have to worry about it coming out of the budget and feeling guilty about it.
So, here’s out it works. You sign up for My Points and they send you emails (I get about 5-7 per week), in the email is an offer to view a company, when you click on the email, you are automatically given 5 points. You can even print coupons and get points for the coupons. Throughout the week, when the email comes in, I move it to another folder, then once a week or so, I take about 15 minutes to go through them. You can also receive points by purchasing through My Points. I have not received any points this way, but just because we don’t have the extra money to buy items online (or anywhere).
I currently have 5,300 points, and remember, I don’t purchase anything online.
If you are interested in signing up with My Points (I think it’s a great deal), please send me an email (contact page) and I will refer you.
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How does My Points compare to InBox Dollars. As I recall InBox Dollars was the same kind of thing, but it seemed to take an enormous amount of time to accumulate just a few points.
unfinishedmom´s last blog ..Keep Barrettes in Fine Hair
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CupcakeLady Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
@unfinishedmom, I don’t know anything about InBox Dollars. Sorry. I do know that My Points is pretty quick.
~Liz
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Hmm, I have never heard of my points before but I love swagbucks! I am paying for all my Christmas gifts with the swagbucks I have earned this past year. It is a great way to get free stuff just by searching, which you do anyway!
Toni
The Happy Housewife´s last blog ..Why We Have to Start Taking our Christmas Photo in September
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I do use Swagbucks, but how do you get the daily code? I have downloaded the toolbar.
Gretchen´s last blog ..Body Pump
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CupcakeLady Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 7:51 am
@Gretchen, During the day, usually later in the day, they have a little (1) next to the red envelope, click on that and you can open the code, I just copy and paste it on the home page of Swagbucks, toward the right where it says Swagcode gimme. Let me know if you still can’t find it and I will help. And if you are on Twitter, the group I follow usually reminds everyone the code is posted.
Thanks for visiting!
~Liz
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My Points is TONS better than InBoxDollars. I’ve been with both roughly the same amount of time, but I’ve been able to cash of out MyPoints, whereas with InBox Dollars, my balance has hardly changed–and I have people under me.
I ♥ Swagbucks! Being on a very tight budget, I’ve been able to get books, workout videos and other things without taking money from our debt snowball or my “blow”.
To save for Christmas we use a Christmas Club account from our Credit Union. Every pay period we have money directly deposited, so we don’t miss it. We earn interest on it, and come October..it is deposited into our general account. Takes the stress out. I’m hoping to use some Swagbucks this year, and put the remainder Christmas Club money into savings or to our debt snowball.
Sorry for the novel!
Phoebe @ Cents to Get Debt Free´s last blog ..Making Hair Bows
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CupcakeLady Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 7:49 am
@Phoebe @ Cents to Get Debt Free, Thanks so much Phoebe for the insight on InBox, I didn’t know anything about it.
~Liz
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great tips thanks for letting me know about these great ways to save money
angie´s last blog ..How to easily dry out a cell phone
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Great links!! Thanks for those:-)
Susie’s Homemade´s last blog ..FNCCC: Week 5
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I’ve done MyPoints & Inbox dollars and I STILL Haven’t been able to cash out of inbox dollars, but I got 2 gift cards so far on mypoints. I’m quitting inbox dollars once I cash out (I am sooo close!). I also have to travel for work soon and since I have to book my own travel and then they reimburse me, I booked through mypoints! I should have a few thousand points coming my way for that. Very exciting!
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I’ve never heard of My Points, although I have started using swagbucks now. Will have to check it out!
Rachel´s last blog ..Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli
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I did almost all my Christmas shopping last year by cashing in various points on various sites. It TOTALLY pays to do Swagbucks!!
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