I'm on a tight budget, so I'm always looking for ways to get stuff for free. I've been asked many times how I manage to find so much for free, so I'm going to share some tips with you.
1. Bing Rewards: Bing is a search engine like Google, however, if you sign up for Bing Rewards, you can actually earn points for searching. You can earn up to 15 points per day from searching on your computer and an additional 10 points for searching on your phone. Just make sure you're logged in before you do any searching. I go in and just do a bunch of random searches every day to get the maximum number of points. When you get enough points you can cash them in for gift cards. We frequently redeem them for our monthly Hulu Plus Subscription (we haven't paid for that in probably 6 months) and Amazon gift cards. My husband and I both have accounts so we earn rewards twice as fast. Sign yourself up and then refer your spouse or significant other and you will both earn bonus points when they hit silver. You can sign up for Bing Rewards here (and when you hit silver status we both get bonus points!)
2. Ebates: If you do any online shopping this is a great website (including some things on Amazon). You earn cash back on your online purchases. Simply log in to Ebates before you buy anything, select the store or website you are buying from, and continue shopping as normal. You can also use this for booking hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, etc. Every 3 months, you can redeem your cash back as long as it's over $5. You can have them send a check, paypal, or you can donate it to an organization or charity. You can sign up for Ebates here.(You can also earn money for referrals.)
3. Coupons: This is a time consuming one, but if you can find the time, couponing saves a lot of money. You can make it easier by using sites like www.thekrazycouponlady.com where they have the best deals already figured out for you.
4. Amazon: I have Amazon Prime so we get free 2 day shipping on most items and we use the rewards we get from Bing to buy stuff for free. We have gotten over $110 in free products from doing this in the last 6 months. You can sign up for Amazon Prime here. (Amazon also offers referral bonuses but only for student accounts.)
5. Open Checking Accounts or Credit Cards: This one can take a ding on your credit, but depending on the amount you earn it can be worth it. Keep your eyes open for bonuses for opening up checking accounts or credit cards. Just be careful not to use the new found credit to put yourself in debt! We cancel ours as soon as we are able to without losing the bonuses we earn. Just yesterday Amazon was having a promotion that if you are approved for the credit card you get a $60 Amazon credit. Earlier this year, Capital One had a promotion that if you open a checking account you get $125 and $75 for a savings account. So my husband and I both opened accounts and earned $400 for free! We have done this a few times with different banks.
6. Achievemint: This is a great rewards program for people who are trying to be healthy and active. It links to your apps that keep track of your health and activity habits. You earn points based on activities you do or healthy posts you make. When you earn 50,000 points they send you a gift card for $50. So for example I have Facebook, Twitter, MyFitnessPal, and Runkeeper all linked to this app. Every time I complete a run on Runkeeper, I earn points. Any time I make a healthy post on Facebook or Twitter, I earn points. If I keep track of my eating on MyFitnessPal, I earn points. It's an easy way to make money for things you are already doing, and a great incentive to be more active. You can sign up at www.achievemint.com
7. Young Living Oils Essential Rewards: I by essential oils on a monthly basis, so I signed up for their Essential Rewards (ER) program and I earn a % for every ER order I place. I can then cash in the points for free oils. If oils are something you are interested you can sign up for them here, or go to the contact page and I can talk to you more about them.
8. Credit Card Rewards: For the most part we try to pay cash, but for our online bills, or big purchases, we use a credit card that we can earn rewards with. There are lots out there, so just find one that works well for you. You have to pay close attention to your spending though and be sure to pay it off at the end of the month, otherwise you will end up paying more in interest than you will earn in rewards which depletes the purpose of using it in the first place.
9. Surveys: Check your receipts because many times they have surveys that you can complete for gift cards. It's usually only around $5, but for a couple minutes of you time, it's an easy $5.
10. Time Share Presentations: We haven't done this one in a while, but you can go to different kinds of time-share like presentations to earn gift cards, or vacation packages. You have to sit through a lengthy presentation, and turn down the pushy sales person multiple times (don't get sucked in!), but sometimes the promotions they give out to get you there are really good.
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