February Money Review

Some of money related goals are to keep track of how much I spend, as well as, keep track of the free money I accumulate and use.

Budget and Spending
Now, I don't have a strict budget I stick to, but I do track my spending.  I find it so much easier to track my spending to see where my money goes than trying to just keep it in my head.  I can then also adjust my spending through out the month and make new spending/saving goals for the following month.  This month was good on coffee and drinks, (by drinks I mean bars and going to happy hours with friends).  Very little was spent in that category.  As far as going out to eat, way to much was spent there.  For March, I am going to try to cut that down.

Free Money
This month I got $50 in gifts for $10.  I cashed in Swagbucks for 2 $10 Starbucks gift cards, I got a $10 Amazon.com gift card from viewpoints.com for reviewing items, and then I paid $10 for a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card.   Not too bad, if I say so myself.

I also earned 1,843 Swagbucks this month.  That is the highest I have ever earned in a month.  Let's see if I can beat it in March.

Viewpoints February Promotion

If you have not used Viewpoints I highly recommend it.  It is a great site to write reviews on products and to read real reviews of products.  And the thing I really love about viewpoints is the promotions they do.  Typically, it is writing 10 reviews and get a $10 amazon.com gift.  It really easy an easy way to earn some free gift cards.  I have $20 in Amazon gift cards and a $25 restaurant.com gift card in 2011.  Pretty good for not even two months out of the year. 

Money Making Apps

I talked about Swagbucks and how you can make "free money".  I found 2 great moblie apps to earn free money.  With both of these apps, you check into a store that you are at (or as I have learned nearby) and you gain points.  You can then redeem those points for gift cards.

The first one is Shopkick.  With Shopkick, there are some exclusive stores where you gain earn two points for checking in, and randomly get one point for checking into other stores.  Shopkick also has bonuses.  Bonuses range from more points, to money that goes to charities.  You can also gain additional shopkick points by scanning products in the store.  There are also levels in shopkick, so the more places you check into the more levels you move through.  And it says that you open more bonuses, when you move up levels. 

There is also Checkpoints.  With Checkpoints you gains points checking into stores and scannnig products. With Checkpoints you can usually only check into a handful of stores each day.  But I find with checkpoints there are more products to scan and you gain more points with the products you scan.   With each product you scan you typically get coins, in addition to the points.  You then get to use your coins in something similar to a slot machine.  And with this slot machine you can gain bonus points.  You can also earn additional coins by downloading apps. 

I dont' favor one app over the other. The combination of their features make both great.  I have redeemed points with Checkpoints and earned $21 in Amazon gift cards.  I would highly recommend both apps. And you will come to love them. To me it is a game to collect points.

Swagbucks

I found I website that I love where I get what I call free money.  This website had many different levels to it.  But the main idea behind it is earning Swagbucks.  And Swagbucks can be cashed in to gain gifts, gifts, etc.  There are many different ways to earn swagbucks. 

1. The first way to earn swagbucks is by searching.  Instead of using google or bing, for example, you search through swagbucks.com.  And you will randomly earn swagbucks.  I typically earn swagbucks between 1 and 3 times a day depending on how much I search.
2. The second way is what I call the daily four.  You can earn 1 swagbuck for completing the daily survey, checking the No Obligation Special Offer, NOSO, checking trusted surveys, and finally installing the tool bar.
3. You can also register for surveys, and if you qualify and complete surveys you can gain extra points
4. Completing special offers.  Some of these require signing up and paying for services and some are free news letters, etc.
5. Watching videos.  I do this one daily.  It is a very easy way to earn extra swagbucks
6. A new feature that was just added is playing games.  I typically do this a few times a week
7. You can also refer friends and gain swagbucks when friends join and then earn swagbuck
8. There are also swagcodes that come out periodically.  These are what I consider a bonus.  Typically you will have to find the code from given hints and enter the code within a certain time period

As you continue to use swagbucks.com you will love it more and more.  I love monitoring how much I earn, and what I cash out.  It is a great free way to get more free money.