Swagbucks Event!

You all know how much I love swagbucks, right? It fits right in with my couponing and my moderator tasks. You search, you win swagbucks, you buy gift cards with them. Makes the money go just a little bit further, you know?

Well, they're having themselves a little shindig in honor of memorial day- games, a bit of fun, and a "Score Four and Twenty Swagbucks Challenge." I love these! If you can manage to collect all four by next Thursday, then you get a sweet twenty swagbuck reward!

Thursday, they're having a swagbuck code extravaganza- over forty dollars in swagcodes will be given away. They do these all over the place, so you have to keep your eyes peeled: Like them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter, and don't forget to check the Swagbucks blog.


Now, if this is the moment you've officially decided that I am a blabbering idiot who has taken to inventing words, that means you haven't gotten on to the swagbucks train yet. Tsk, tsk. Let's fix that.

Go here- and sign up- making sure to put the code MEMORIALDAY in when prompted. That'll help you out with an extra 50 swagbucks on top of the 30 you already get just for being you. Once you register, take a peek around. They've got coupons that earn you bucks, surveys, shopping, and my favorite, the search engine. Don't forget to check out the rewards section, so you know how much you want to win to get your favorite gift!

Good luck, and happy Swagbucking!

To support Amazon, or not... that is the question.

I've got enough Swagbucks for an Amazon gift card.

And there they sit, off to the right of you, in the swidget. As of this morning, I'm more than a quarter of the way to a second gift card.

This holds no joy for me this moment. Ordinarily, I would order an Amazon card as soon as I hit 451, and tuck it into my account for my future shopping needs. Those gift cards have come in mighty handy. I got my oldest daughter's vampire teeth with them, I've let a sibling use them to purchase a gift for our mother's birthday, my husband got a phone case for his new phone, and the oldest got a bento box to bring her lunch to school in. Considering all I do is occasionally take the poll and use the swag bucks search engine to earn them, an extra ten dollars a month is well worth the time.

I'm still holding animosity towards Amazon. They spent a good twelve hours defending the rights of a pedophile before they took his craptacular how-to guide off the market. It wasn't the disgusting work poured from a deranged mind that forced their hand...in clear violation of their own policies they stood up for the rights of the pedophile.

 Freedom of speech, they said. Freedom from censorship, they cried.

I can't see their point. At all. No one is yanking this guy's personal diary out and putting him in jail for it, although, I would almost feel just fine if they did, considering his thoughts on baby rape. (He thinks babies can consent to sex.)

 Everyone has a right to freedom of speech. That doesn't mean that what you say doesn't have consequences. If I walk up to the VP of my company during one of his visits and tell him he's a pompous ass, I'm going to get fired. (he's not by the way, he's actually pretty cool, it's just an example). Is that a violation of my first amendment rights?

No. It's a consequence for a stupidity leak.

So what about this censorship thing? Amazon's own policies restrict the sale of things that encourage illegal activities. Last time I checked, baby rape was still illegal. And no one is guaranteed a platform for their ramblings. If I start going on about murdering cats, or something heinous like that, blogger will probably yank my blog and send the FBI to my house. Is that censorship? Or an act of kindness for cats everywhere?

Well, Amazon doesn't seem to be big on the moral stand route. In fact, last I checked, they were still selling pedophilia related books. Just not the one that prompted the cries across the blogosphere for a boycott.

Part of me doesn't even want to give them my monopoly money. I spent most of the day last Wednesday writing various news organizations, partners, other bloggers, etc, etc,  in an effort to get that book pulled. Finally, the nationwide efforts paid off, not for the safety of our children, but for the safety of Amazon's bottom line.

 Is this really where I want to spend my money? Even my fake money?

I'm just not sure.

How to Swagbuck and not lose your mind...

I've tossed aside my idea of completely funding Christmas via Swagbucks. It just takes more time than I've got. Not only do you have to aggressively complete surveys and special offers, but you have to keep track of each and every one, and make sure they pay. This only happens on its own, once every three or four tasks.

And when they don't pay? You begin the harrowing task of arguing with a computer for your points. WAY not cool. When it takes me four hours and nine conversations to earn twenty cents, I'm wasting my time.

However, the search engine IS worth the trouble. I earned fifteen dollars in gift cards last month just using the search engine instead of any other search engine, and will continue to do that and watch for codes. It may not fund Christmas completely, but every penny is a penny I didn't have to wait on tables for. (even though I do love that).

Sometimes, time really is money. Or in this case...washed dishes, clean floors, and snuggled babies. Yeah, I'll take the easy road here.

Swagbucks Troubles

I have come to a difficult time in my swagbucks conquest. I've gotten four amazon gift cards and several other trinkets in my swagbucking, with relatively little work and follow up. I had to follow up once, but my credits were rewarded promptly as soon as I filled out the customer service complaint form.

Then, I had a particularly good day yesterday and today, completing five free offers and a survey, for what should have been a total of over 600 hundred swagbucks, which equals about 6.00 in prizes.

Nothing.

I duly filled out the complaint. Two of the offers simply required you to view a page... I did that, and then, customer service requested a confirmation email. The fact that the status said "viewed" should have been enough, but no, they want confirmation. I know, every website sends out a confirmation to your email every time you click a page, right? Expect yours from me in 5...4...3...

I argued this. Of course. I received word that I would hear from a customer service agent in three business days.

Another offer I went straight to the company that made the offer, to find that SuperRewards had misquoted their offer, and I should have my swagbucks already. I forwarded this to SuperRewards... to hear that I would hear from them in... three business days.

A final offer was particurly trying... you had to take a quiz, and then dodge seemingly endless offers and requests for your cell phone number while staying on till the end to get your score... which I did, and.... nothing. I emailed customer service with my score... and you guessed it! They want a confirmation email! I responded that the company doesn't send emails with your score... well, let's just say they'll get back to me in...
any guesses?

I have every intention of following through with this. It's ridiculous to think that I wasted my time filling out these offers to not receive my prize. A host of complaints is visible on the Swagbucks Facebook page, but an email directly to swagbucks simply referred me back to SuperRewards.

So frustrating.

Update: all but two items have been awarded. I did at one point threaten to call both the better business bureau and the PA attorney general, but eventually they saw to reason.

Today's Freebies and Other fun things

Well, I updated our computer virus protection software today with a free offer from McAfee. A free six month trial, which considering my propensity for freebie sites, updated virus protection is crucial. I also maintained my PC today, by cleaning up toolbars I don't use and other programs, and then running disk clean up and disk defragmenter. A healthy PC is a happy PC, and keeps my mailbox full of freebies!

This weeks freebies consisted of a nice package of dog food from purina one, a single paper towel (I kid you not) from bounty. A conservative bumper sticker with a request for a donation, the address labels that St. Judes sent around, and two giant packages of boxes from the post office to assist in my ebay ventures. I have over 900swagbucks so that's ten bucks worth of amazon gift cards for Christmas!

Speaking of Ebay, I'm giving it another two weeks. I've netted ten bucks out of two hours worth of work and a bunch of stress... I'm going to get all the expensive stuff I want on in the next two weeks while they are offering free insertion fees for any starting price auction style format, and then I think I'm going to retire my gavel in favor of the yard sale style format. I think the boxes may help, but I made mistakes in shipping prices on at least one item, and lost .45 of my total profit.

Speaking of freebies, my giveaway will end tonight when I get back from running errands, so you have time to click the "follow" button... and don't run away when it's done! I have more good, solid freebies coming your way!

What are your favorite online freebie sites

Swagbucks- my latest and greatest addiction.

If you're looking to save money and get free stuff, and you are skipping out on the swagbucks, you are truly missing out.

Look to the right of you- see the swidget? Click sign up. Complete the registration.
Begin the madness.

I've been "swaggering" for a little over a week, and have already earned enough for two father's day cards, a coupon book, and a five dollar amazon gift card.

An amazon gift card...hmmmmmm, that gives me an idea. A new and secondary challenge for your humble blogger. What if I could pay for Christmas with Swagbucks? Can it be done? My Christmas budget eeks over $700 every year. To be fair, I have purchased several gifts already...(does seven hundred dollars crawl out of YOUR budget in one month? I don't think so.)

I have to admit, the searches are a gateway drug. I've taken surveys, I've completed offers, and I've searched for codes. It's all found money.

Think I can do it? I do! 4 dollars down, 696 to go.