Thrifty Thursday: Saving Money with Swagbucks

My goal when I started was to make the daily goals but I quickly realized that this was not something that I couldn't do and maintain a life.  I was up one night really late worried that my last video was going to stop on the computer.  I realized that it was taking away from a good nights sleep just to get a few more points.  I was going to be seeing this symbol in my sleep.

Then, I decided that I would try to get 7 days in a row to get the bonus for that but even that was impossible for me to keep up.  I was unwilling to give up and trying to figure out what I could actually do and still maintain the rest of my life without Swagbucks interfering.

I FINALLY figured out a good balance for me and a way to achieve my goals.  My goal is for one $25 gift card a month because you need to have 2,200 points to get one at the discounted price per month (which just happens to also be the limit).

I have been doing that every month and I earned one gift card which I gave as a gifts for Christmas, Birthdays and more.  I just earn my last one which is going to go with other gift cards to buy our attic ladder from Home Depot.  I know that these might not seem like the most exciting addition but everything that I did was money that would have normally had to come out of our pocket and now with a little work, they didn't have to.

Going forward, I might have the chance to actually use these things for something fun or else save up all the money that I would have spent at these other things and spend it on something fun but I plan on using at least one of the gift cards to put on my Amazon account to increase my Amazon credit to use towards Christmas gifts for my son.  I might get a gift card to take us out to dinner and buy some fun stuff at Target too!!

Here is the great part, I am going to share some of my secrets!!  Okay, they aren't really secrets but I am sharing.  I got an iPhone that we aren't using for phone service...I realize that not everyone has that sitting around but it was perfect me.  I start up the videos playing the morning (if they stopped from the night before) so that I can get at least 10 points from that while I am getting ready and at work.  The great part is if there are bonus then I am already working on that while I am at work.

Then, I got figuring out where all my points came from (in case you don't know how to do this, I just figured it out... go to my SB and there is a drop down where all the points come from).  My lifetime total is just over 9,000.  Here is the breakdown from the website where my points came from:

Searching the Web         65 pts
Shop & Earn Coupons      305 pts
Swagcodes                    16 pts
Other                          810 pts
Answers                      5135 pts
Special Offers                 456 pts
Games                            40 pts
Daily Poll (Bonus SB)    76 pts
Swagbucks TV (on computer)    573 pts
Mobile Watch (on iPhone)           1548 pts
nCrave                                       11 pts

I got over half of my points from doing the surveys which I guess is to be expected because those are the high point hits.  I am so surprised that the mobile watching earned me the next highest points.  They did recently change the rules so hoping that doesn't ruin my chances of making my monthly goals.

If you are interested in starting, please feel free to join my to join my team.  I would love to have more members to work towards making free money with this wonderful tool.

What tips do you have that help you earn your Swagbucks??