Have you all seen those commercials for Coke Zero where the person is put into some crazy situation and then they drink a little Coke Zero and notice the and in the description, then start saying “and” and getting all these crazy things? That stuff doesn’t happen in real life. Right? That’s just some commercial mind’s crazy idea of what the melding of “Real Coca~Cola taste AND zero calories” can do for you. While I can’t vouch for the power of and in your soda drinking, I certainly can show you a way that and works in real life.
What I’m talking about is saving money with coupons AND earning Swagbucks. I’ve talked about Swagbucks a few times before, but, if you’re unfamiliar with them here’s a rundown. Swagbucks is a “paid-to-search” site, where you use their custom search engine, and occasionally win Swagbucks for doing so. They’ve got a bunch of other ways to earn Swagbucks, including taking a daily poll, watching SwagbucksTV, Tasks, and even games. One other way, that I’ve been taking advantage of, is their coupons feature. Using their coupons page, you print out coupons. They’re running the same system as Coupons.com, so if you usually use that, you’ll be getting the same coupons. The big difference here (the “and”, if you will) is that for each coupon that you print through the Swagbucks system, and then redeem, you earn 10 Swagbucks. Pretty cool, no?
Once a week or so, I’ll go through the list of coupons and print as many as we’ll use, then give them to my wife who cuts them out and sorts them for use. She’s in charge of that, because she’s got the coupon organizer, and is far better at actually remembering to use the coupons than I am. 🙂
My favorite use of my Swagbucks is to trade my Swagbucks in on Amazon.com giftcards. 450 Swagbucks gets you a $5 Amazon card. On average, I get a new card every other month. While it certainly isn’t going to make me rich, it feeds my Amazon habit, and helps me reduce my spending on books and such.
Give Swagbucks a try. (Join Swagbucks here.) After all, who wouldn’t like to make some extra cash and save with coupons?
If you sign up before April 2nd, 2012, and use the code MARCHSWAG during the sign up, you’ll get an added 70 Swagbuck bonus on top of the current 30 Swagbucks you get when you sign up, for a total of 100 Swagbucks to start off with.
Shane Ede is a business teacher and personal finance blogger. He holds dual Bachelors degrees in education and computer sciences, as well as a Masters Degree in educational technology. Shane is passionate about personal finance, literacy and helping others master their money. When he isn’t enjoying live music, Shane likes spending time with family, barbeque and meteorology.