Tuesday, February 5, 2013

♥ Earning Points ♥

These days it seems like many of us are looking for ways to be frugal, thrifty, and save money in any way possible!

Well, I wanted to share something I’ve recently begun that is allowing us to build points for gift cards and in one instance, even cash.
 
First of all, for some time now, we have been using a Visa points card through our bank, Regions. We were a little reluctant at first because it is a credit card, which we stay away from like the plague. BUT, we decided to give it a trial run, since we were already in the habit of using a debit card. The thing we wanted to make sure was that we were disciplined in making sure to pay it off every two weeks (which is a pay period for us). In other words, sticking to our budget and putting only those normal things on it we would purchase anyway, like groceries, gas, etc.. So, that’s the first way we’ve been earning points and it’s already paid off well during Christmas. We opted for cash into our account and it was nice to see that money earned just by using the points card. Now if you don’t think you can be disciplined to pay it off each week or two, I wouldn’t advise this because racking up a balance on a credit card that you don’t pay off is never a good thing.

The second way we’ve been building points is through My Points (.com). I’m not that familiar with Swagbucks, although I’ve seen it around. This may work similar to that. I earn points through this by taking surveys occasionally or should I say trying to take surveys (because most of the time they disqualify me). Guess I'm just too simple and not interesting enough.  :) But that’s okay too, because I still get points for trying.....just for clicking and attempting to take it.  Another way is by printing and using coupons that are sent to me through email.   And the big way to earn points through My Points is by purchasing through their site. This means if you’re already going to make an online purchase, first go to My Points (once you’re signed up with an account) and see if that store is listed and go through that link to the website and place your order. You automatically get points for your purchase. I’ve only been doing this for less than a month, and it’s already building nicely.

And the third way I wanted to mention that is really easy is Bing. Bing is a search engine and you build points with them mostly by just doing searches.....any type of search.   You don't have to click on what your search, just put it in the search bar.  You do 30 searches a day for 15 points and there’s always a daily list of things you can do. I literally spend about 5 minutes or less doing this, making it a part of my daily routine. There are a few ways to get your rewards with them, but for us, the best one was Amazon gift cards. I’m planning on saving mine for Christmas gifts.

Now, here’s another thing. If you sign up for either My Points or Bing, you can also earn extra points by inviting other folks to sign up through your link. And then they can do the same thing with family and friends.

So, if you’re like us, and looking for ways to save or build points for gift cards, I highly recommend these. If you’re interested, I’d love to pass along my link for Bing and an invitation to join My Points.

Click here to sign up for Bing through my link.  Just follow this to sign up and it automatically gives me credit and gets you started! It gives you the option to sign up through Facebook or to create a Microsoft account, which only requires an email address and a password.  I'm not on Facebook, so I joined through the Microsoft option.

And for My Points, email me here with your email address and I’ll send you the invitation. Then just let the points start building and the savings begin!

And last of all today, I’m going to leave you with a couple of pics from Joy’s birthday celebration. Bless her heart, she had a stomach bug on her birthday, but somehow made it through the day although she says much of it is a blur. Her friend, Christina, spent the entire weekend with us, stomach virus and all.  What a sweet friend.  :)

Joy wanted a Captain America birthday cake:



And she wanted to eat at Steak N Shake:



Thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes for our girl!  :)

Thanks for stopping by! And if I can answer any questions about the above points avenues, I’d be glad to try! :)

♥ Tammy ♥

12 comments:

Pendleton Primitives said...

Joy rocks the retro! I love the cake and the hats! We had a Reasturant called Rubys that was a Diner theme and the kids just loved it. When I was young, we'd go to Eat at Eds. I wish we had more unique places like those. Anyway, a very cool retro Americanna Birthday!
~Christina

Sandra said...

Great cake, my daughter would LOVE that one :)

Sorry she wasn't feeling well but what a good sport to put up a smile and keep going :)

Beth said...

The cake is beautiful and I bet it tasted good too.

good luck with your point system.

Unknown said...

We do visa points as well. I just capped our visa at $1000 so we can't get into to much trouble.
I had no idea about bing tho
Good tips today thanks
Cheers Tammy

April said...

I've been doing MyPoints since about Sept. when I joined on with BzzAgent. It really is a good program and I can't wait to be able to cash in some of my points soon! Beautiful cake!

Linda ★ Parker's General said...

Joy is so beautiful.....
Happy Birthday, Sweet girl!
I've been doing My Points for several years. Gotten a lot of great meals out of them!

LynnMarie said...

Good points and I like the idea of the Bing site, will look into that one. Not sure about the debit card for food. Make me nervous.

Primitive Stars said...

Points are good...great cake, yum yum, sweet picture....Happy Bday Joy, Francine.

Karen said...

Love the cake! Amber would like it, too :) So sorry Joy was sick on her birthday though!

I do the Bing points, too, and also Swagbucks. I love using the points toward Amazon cards!

Michelle said...

I am thinking about the Bing points. But as for the credit card no thanks. We worked to hard to get out of debt

Joy ~ Doodlebug ~ said...

Mama,

I loooove points. :D Points are good. :D

You're right--my birthday kind of planned itself out! It was just going to be a conglomoration (yes, I know that's one of our made up words) of fun stuff, but it ended up being a 40's/50's American kind of party. :)

Love you! 8!

Love,
Joy :)

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