Christmas is almost here! Only 14 more sleeps but hey who is counting. I am so far behind. So far I only have about half the presents purchased. Usually at this point I am done, gifts are wrapped, and I am sipping on something warm and festive. I am still earning and saving for Christmas. At this point I have already earned over $1,000 which is way more than I need.

The plan is to shop and whatever is left add to my next couponing to whatever fund. Even though I have more money than needed. I will be strictly following my budget. If you don’t have a budget for Christmas shopping. I highly recomend making a list, budget, and sticking to it. It is so hard to not overspend in the stores. There is just so much temptation this time of the year!  Below is my real numbers to date.

Swagbucks – $790.00
Ibotta – $261.30
Garage Sale – $245.50
Facebook Marketplace Sales – $42.00
Fetch $25.00
Refund from Doctor office – $20.00
Total: $1383.80

Wanna know my #1 tip to make your dreams become reality’s? It is simple yet it’s so simple that it seems to good to be true. But I promise you it works if you work it. We often forget that we control where our money goes. Yes I am talking you! Budgeting is one of those grownup things that is no fun for most including me. However with a proper budget you will feel as if you got a raise. Most will find that they can cut
15 – 20% of their monthly spending with minimal effort. That might seem overwhelming right now. Just know I believe in your dream, you can do it!

If you are new to budgeting or a pro. I want you to look at your past 3 months credit card, and bank statements. If you are new to budgeting you are going to need to write down categories or where your money is going. Under each category you can keep a running list of each month spending. Keep each month’s spending separate. Or you can use a spreadsheet. Both ways work! When you finish that, add up all the numbers for each category. Then add up each months same categories and divide by 3. That will give you an average of what your monthly spending is on each category.

At this point, most people can spend less on one or more categories. Especially if you have a goal you are working towards. It could be as simple as only eat out once a week verses your current 3 times a week. Right there you can potentially save yourself $60.00 or more each week! Or maybe you can cut down your clothing spending, do a pantry clean out, start making your coffee at home every  morning, bring your lunch, and so much more. Just think if you could find an extra $60.00 every week in your budget to save. That would be $240.00 a month or $2,880 a year!

If  $60.00 a week is to much don’t feel bad about it. We have all been there at some point in our lives. Figure out what you can trim out of your spending. Even if that is only $5.00 it adds up over the year to be $240.00.

Now we are going to get serious and figure out what kind of SavEar you are! Each SavEar will be different depending on your life, job, kids, and how much tolerance you have for Swagbucks and other apps. No SavEar is better than the other. Each is different and that is what makes him or her special. Time to get into the nitty gritty ways to earn.

Today we are going to learn about surveys. Full disclosure surveys are not for everyone. I personally don’t mind surveys. However, I know many of you despise them. That is okay! It is a strength to know your limits. If you aren’t a survey taker that just means you have more time to do other things to add to your fund. 

Surveys can be located under answer button along the top on the homepage. Those are my favorite ones. Each different advertiser wall (more on those later) will have their own surveys. Those are hit and miss. Sometimes they are great. Other times it is a never ending loop of sorry you don’t qualify let’s try another survey. 

Negatives about surveys – boring, tedious, sometimes you answer a bunch of questions only to be told your don’t qualify, and my favorite (just kidding) sometimes even if you complete a survey it will glitch out and not credit.

*Swagbuck’s always makes it right by you putting in a complete help ticket, or when they do audits a few times a year they find it. When they do those audits you will know because randomly you will get SB points that say survey #12345 or whatever it was.

Positives about surveys – get your voice heard, easy money for your fund, sometimes it will lead to a panel (that is where the big bucks are), and my favorite free things to test in your home. I personally have been sent a vacuum to test for 3 months. Plus lots of other smaller things.

Day 1 Swagbucks Training

Day 2 Swagbucks Training

Day3 Swagbucks Training

If you haven’t signed up for Swagbucks, what are you waiting for? I personally have paid off a Disney vacation, Universal trip, Christmas presents for as far back as I can remember, dyslexia tutoring, and so much more with SB. 

Homework:
If you have never tried surveys spend some time trying them. It is one of those things you will never know if you like surveys or not until you try. People either love them or hate them. There really isn’t any gray area.

Get rewarded for shopping! Sounds crazy I know, but It really works. I have been utilizing both of these features for years now. We are going to talk about magic receipts and the shop feature. These are both things that EVERYONE can utilize. Magic Receipts is very similar to Ibotta or apps that give you cash back for buying certain things. All you do is buy a certain item at one of the participating stores. Upload a copy of your receipt and like magic the SB is rewarded to your account usually instantly. 

Example:
Buy 3 Merci 7 oz chocolates – $5.48 each
Pay $16.44
Submit to Swagbucks for 900 SB ($9.00) back
Total: $7.44 or $2.48 each

Details:
The magic receipts is an easy way to add to your Swagbucks earnings.  Some offers are available at only certain stores while others are available at many stores. Just like with coupons you have to read the details of the offer and follow them. 

Shop is where you click thru from Swagbucks first to shop at different retailers. You will get as little as 1% up to 15% during special earning periods. The points back can take up to 7 days to show up in your account. Even after they show up they often take 30 – 90 days to credit to your account. I like to add to my calendar the day the points should show up as pending and the day they are suppose to credit. Just so I don’t forget to follow up to make sure it credits properly.

Day 1 Swagbucks Training

Day 2 Swagbucks Training

If you haven’t signed up for Swagbucks, what are you waiting for? I personally have paid off a Disney vacation, Universal trip, Christmas presents for as far back as I can remember, dyslexia tutoring, and so much more with SB. 

Homework:
Look thru the magic receipts category. See what items you could use. Think outside of the box. Such as use the chocolates from the example for Christmas gifts. See what meals you could make out of the items available.

Now that you have your daily schedule set. Time to figure out a realistic goal for you! My goal shouldn’t be your goal. We are all unique and have different things going on in life. A good rule of thumb is for every 10 minutes of time you have aim for 25 SB. Below our the guidelines I use in my own life to set goals. 

Tips for setting goals

• Small attainable goals work best. If you set the bar to high you are setting yourself up for failure.
• You don’t want to make your goals so easy that it takes no effort.
• Your goals should be achievable, yet challenging.
• You can always adjust your goals weekly, daily, or even hourly if need be.
• Be flexible when setting and achieving goals.

Day 1 Swagbucks Training

If you haven’t signed up for Swagbucks, what are you waiting for? I personally have paid off a Disney vacation, Universal trip, Christmas presents for as far back as I can remember, dyslexia tutoring, and so much more with SB. 

Homework:
Take a some time to figure out what your goal will be for Swagbucks. Write it down in a notebook, your journal, planner, or even on a post it. It is important to write it down. Writing things down have power. You will be more likely to achieve you goals if you write it down and reflect on it often.

This weekend was a blur! Friday, I did the Mento’s offers under shop and earn. You buy 3 mints you get 1,000 SB. There is another offer for buy 3 Mento’s gum get 1,000 SB. We where running low on gum and mints. It is one of the things I normally buy in bulk at Sam’s.  It didn’t credit automatically. When I put in a ticket it credited within 10 hours. Saturday and Sunday both I didn’t do anything with Swagbucks. I am okay with that! 

3 X Mento’s Mints $3.89 = $11.67
Submit to Swagbucks for 1,000 SB ($10)

3X Mento’s Gum $3.89 = $11.67
Submit to Swagbucks for 1,000 SB ($10)

If you haven’t signed up for Swagbucks sign up here!   It is free you have nothing to loose. Many of us including myself have paid for Christmas’s, dream vacations, paid bills, and so much more with Swagbucks. If you are super busy and have no time at all. You should easily be able to earn $25 a month. The more time you devout to Swagbuck’s the more you will earn. 

Did you know we are giving away a Loungefly Bag + 2,500 SB this month?

Woohoo, we made it thru week one!!! Only one more week to make it a habit friends. We got this!!! Yesterday, I did a ton click and earn offers. If you are having trouble figuring out which ones are working. Check the daily how to earn thread in the Facebook group. I always get ideas of ways to earn from those ladies. Plus you want to contribute on that thread to be get more entries into our giveaway! You can read more about that here. 

If you haven’t signed up for Swagbucks sign up here!   It is free you have nothing to loose. Many of us including myself have paid for Christmas’s, dream vacations, paid bills, and so much more with Swagbucks. If you are super busy and have no time at all. You should easily be able to earn $25 a month. The more time you devout to Swagbuck’s the more you will earn. 

Here is the thing with click and earn. It is basically you getting rewarded for signing up with your email and sometimes phone number for service, app, or learning about a medicine. The best way to avoid getting scam calls, and emails is get a new email address and Google Voice number. Use that number and email only for Swagbucks offers.

Day 7  – Ended with 218 SB all from click and earn free offers.

Day 8 – Ended with 45 SB – Didn’t have as much time to devout to it. I will be making that up this week.

Bet you thought I forgot all about our little challenge, I didn’t! Life happened and I learned this past weekend. That it is hard for me to make time for Swagbucks on the weekends. Not impossible just tricky. Going forward I will be trying to earn enough through out the week so the weekends I can take off. Will it happen? I don’t know! But I am going to try. 

Day 4 – 2,000 SB – I did the Fruit Of Loom Men’s underwear deal. 

Day 5 – 125 S- Got one survey after what felt like an eternity. 

Day 6 – 100 SB – Turned in my Swago board. I did do the Acorn deal for 4,000 but it takes 30 days to credit.

Total: 2,225 or $22.45 not bad!

I won’t be doing a check-in on Saturday or Sunday. I will add those to Monday’s. There just isn’t enough time in the day to do all the things.

Boy has the year flew by! I can’t believe the Christmas shopping season is just around the corner. This year has been full of it’s ups and downs. Things are finally getting back to normalish. It is not 100% back to the way it was before, but we are moving in the right direction. Going from a mom that dropped her kids off at school to a being a teacher to 3 students kinder – 10th was hard. Then throw in moving to Utah unplanned. 2021 has been a challenging year to say the least. With all that said it is time to go out with a bang!!!

I have tons of Christmas presents that need to be purchased. Before, I would buy year round on clearance and at this point would be halfway done. This year I have nothing. I am starting at zero like many of you! It is a little scary when I think of all the presents, I want to buy in the next 3 and half months with a shoe string budget. That means it is time to get busy with Swagbucks and all the things. We all know the drill we just have to do it. Plans and accountability work really well for me. Below I am going to share my game plan with you all. Hopefully it will help you!

If you have not taken our FREE Swagbucks 7 Day Email course. Do that now! It will set you up for success.

Action Plan:

1. Spend 20 minutes three times a day or all at on sitting on Swagbucks daily.
2. Check Ibotta, Fetch, Co51, and SB magic receipts for new offers daily.
3. Look at my budget and see where I can cut back.
4. Check in daily for accountability.