Legit free stuff part 2: swagbucks

Simple premise: sign up for free, use their google-powered search engine, earn points. Exchange the points for prizes. This is one of those things that seems too good to be true, but I've got $15 in amazon.com gift cards to prove otherwise.

swagbucks.com

Ignore most of the site. The best way to rack up points without ever touching your credit card is to use their search engine. You get various bonuses here and there, and they offer limited-time codes usually at least once per day to get even more points. They have a whole "offers" section, too, and there are a few easy, free ones, but using the search engine is still your best bet.

The best way to get points is to just search for stuff like your normally would. I find it's willing to cough up points every 6-8 hours. Search, and if nothing shows up, change your terms and search again. If after 2-3 tries nothing happens, wait a few hours and try again. The most popular prize is naturally the $5 amazon.com e-giftcard - shouldn't take more than a month to get enough points for one. (Remember that you can get _food_ on amazon.com, as well as, you know, just about anything on the planet.)

If you happen to be doing some online shopping with, say, drugstore.com (which is by itself a surprisingly great resource for random cheap/free stuff...but more on that later), start by clicking through their "shop and earn" section, and you'll get 2 points per dollar spent...eventually (it takes about 3-4 weeks for the points to actually post. But hey, it's something.)