MyPoints: a slightly lamer rewards site

While it's not as good as Swagbucks (which I have now gotten $185 worth of amazon.com gift cards from :D), MyPoints is another potential way to earn rewards. I've gotten $50 worth of gift cards from them (2x$25) in the past 9 months, so I'd say that's at least worth checking out.

It works like this: they send you a few sponsored emails a day. You get 5 points for clicking on them. That's all you have to do. You usually get more points (depending on the offer, sometimes 10-25, sometimes thousands) if you "take advantage of the offer" (ie buy something, but sometimes it's a free thing like sign up for a website or take a survey.)

That's about it. There are more ways to earn (if you install their toolbar you can get 75 points/month for doing at least 30 searches), but that's the meat of it. Their offer wall is lacking, and the only other way to earn points is by shopping. If you happen to already do a lot of online shopping, you are likely to rack up points much faster, but of course that somewhat defeats the purpose of "free" (still better than no rewards though!)

Other good points:

• Sometimes the ad emails they send actually have really good offers in them. I've mentioned before that I love drugstore.com. That site already has a lot of good deals, but thanks to MyPoints I've gotten additional deals *plus* extra rewards on MyPoints for buying stuff I would have paid more for at any local shop.
  
• You can actually get points for shopping on eBay! You can access eBay search and even bookmark items directly on MyPoints. Then, if you win an item that you clicked through, you get points from the purchase. Just make sure not to clear your cookies between the time you clicked and the end of the auction (if you do, just go back and click again.)
  

Kinda lame points:

• They actually insist on mailing you your gift card claim code. No clue why. The good news is, the letter shows up pretty quickly (less than a week in my experience.)
  
• There used to be a "Spin and Win" feature on the site which gave you the daily opportunity to get free points. It seems to be gone now.
  
• There doesn't seem to be a referral link or banners to use; you have to email people to get referrals, which I don't really like doing (makes me think all my friends and family will just start ignoring my emails because they may see stuff like that as spam. I much prefer to direct people to my blog!)
  

Bottom line: It's pretty worth it, but especially if you shop online frequently. They have a lot of available retailers, and seem to be pretty good at tracking cookies. (I have had to email Swagbucks customer support several times to get them to cough up my Shop & Earn points!)

Free Macaroni for Life?

If it seems like I won't shut up about Swagbucks, it's because I'm really grateful to that site for helping me out when need it.

For those of you who know me, yes I have a much better job than I did 3 months ago, but things are still tight (this is San Francisco, after all). I'm thankful for every little freebie or extra bit of cash I can get my hands on, and I recently discovered a way to combine my Swagbucks earnings with amazon.com's reoccurring bulk grocery shipments to get completely free food. Let me explain...

If you weren't aware, amazon.com has a lot of groceries you can buy for pretty decent prices, usually in packs of 12. They recently added an option to sign up for regular deliveries of a product, either every month, two months, three months, or six months.

I know I keep saying "I made $xx in amazon.com gift cards", but that's a little vague. The prizes are e-cards; you exchange your Swagbucks for the prize, and within two weeks (they post prizes on the 15th and 30th of every month), you receive the code in the Gift Cards section of your Swagbucks account. Once you get the code, you can apply it in your amazon.com account—you can combine as many cards as you like, and the balance is automatically applied when you check out.

Now back to getting free food. For example, this: Kraft Blue Box Macaroni & Cheese, 7.25-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 15) costs $18.20, making each box cost $1.21. Not bad, but if you sign up to have it delivered, say, every 3 months, the cost goes down to $15.47 (with free shipping), or $1.03 per box.

So, you've signed up for reoccurring shipments of macaroni or other cheap food that you use often (ramen is another good idea). Now all you have to do is make sure you keep enough on your gift card balance, and you'll get regular deliveries of completely free food. If you signed up for delivery every 2 months, all you'd have to do is make sure you earn 2 $5 amazon.com gift cards every month, which is super easy (I made $25 worth this month alone!)

Do yourself a favor and get on Swagbucks if you haven't already!

Legit Free Stuff part 4: Network!

Networking is a fancy way of saying, "Get a lot of friends who can help you do stuff." I always thought it was just for, you know, "business types", but even just having a big group of friends can open up a lot of doors. Even if you just start a skill-trade with a few people, you can easily acquire things you need (did I mention haircuts?), and offer your own skills without ever exchanging cash.

Many great things have come to me from the connections I've made at my jobs. I got a couch, dresser, vacuum cleaner, and a huge bag of bath stuff from my old manager when she moved back to Japan. Plus, I have several contacts in Japan who can help me out should I find myself there. Keep your eyes and ears open, and remember to give back as good as you get. The karma will come back to you eventually.

Oftentimes, all it takes is just admitting that you're having a hard time financially, and people will want to help you. I've been offered food, rides to work when I didn't have money for train fare, etc. It's less about being a mooch than it is about giving and receiving help—remember that thing about giving back? At the very least, let anyone who does you a favor know how much you truly appreciate it, and let them know that you'll be there for them when they need it.

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.)

Legit free stuff part 1: free sample sites

Okay, let's start with this, because it's the most fun part of being broke. You get to go on treasure hunts!

You probably remember a time when a random free sample came in the mail. How awesome that day was. It doesn't even matter if it was cereal, laundry soap, whatever. You got a pint-sized product without having to do a damn thing. It is possible to get all kinds of random free stuff (even full-size products), with new offers popping up practically everyday. The two most solid resources for this are:

Hey it's free
and
Sweet free stuff

These sites are the only ones I go to - no spam, no spyware, no fake "free" offers where you have to provide credit card info...just actual free samples from legit sources (usually big name brands and companies rolling out new products.) There is a bit of cross-over between the two sites, but sometimes they do post different stuff, so I like to check both every few days. They also each have their own Twitter feed, so you'll never miss a chance for something free.

In the past 5 years I've gotten enough random free samples to fill a bathtub (I seriously cannot remember the last time I had to buy shampoo), and that tiny tube of toothpaste can really come in handy when you run out and aren't getting paid for another week.

Remember that everything I post here is personally tested. I have not noticed any increase in spam or junk mail from signing up for these offers, but you do usually have to provide an email address. I recommend you make a hotmail (etc) account just for this purpose. But most places don't even email you.