Update: Swagbucks

Remember how I talked about Swagbucks back in August and said that I was earning Amazon gift cards to buy Richard a Christmas present? Well, I decided I better update you all and let you know what "present" I bought for him. My goal was to earn $50 worth of gift cards and to my surprise I surpassed that goal by a long way! Little did I know that when I first posted here about Swagbucks and how "you can use their search tool and earn points and then trade those points in for gift cards" that when you refer someone and they start earning points, you do, too! In fact six of you joined Swagbucks through my referral link on the side of my blog and I earned up to 1,000 points from each of you! Wow! Thank you! A $5 Amazon gift card can be traded for 450 points so most of my referrals earned me $10+ of Amazon credit.

Now let me tell you what I bought from Amazon with that credit:

* Wii Ultimate Band (for a friend)

* Lego City Fire Car X2 (for nephews)

* I-Dance Buzz Lightyear (for the Toy Story lover in my house for his birthday)

* 3 GB of computer memory (for the nerd) - this alone would have been the $50 I wanted to earn for Christmas

* Brigham Young: American Moses book (for the same hunky nerd)

* Cassette car adapter (he has to listen to his podcasts on his way to and from work)

* Electric shaver foil and cutter replacement pack (for my father-in-law for Christmas/birthday)

Since Christmas, I have been using my gift cards on diapers, wipes, head phones, and H&R At Home tax software. I pair up my gift cards with good deals I find on my "deal websites" to stretch the money even farther. I also signed up for Amazon Mom to get free 2-day shipping on most of these items.

Anyway, I first wanted to thank those who signed up under me. And, for those I just now convinced to start using Swagbucks as a search engine (you can also earn points by watching videos; printing and using coupons; participating in daily polls or surveys and other things on their website), continue to share the love and earn points for yourself. I heard that they will be celebrating their third anniversary next week with some great point offers, so now is a good time to join!