Swagbucks

Recently, I discovered Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is a rewards site where you can answer surveys, browse online and shop, all while earning points (called Swagbucks, or SB for short) which can be redeemed for paypal cash and gift cards.

I used a promo code from a blog that came up in a Google search. That earned me 1,000 SB which is the equivalent of $10.00. That blogger certainly earned some money or Swagbucks from his referral, but I'm fine with that. To earn the promo, I had to make an online purchase of $25.00. On Labor Day all the retailers were having sales, so I ordered two dresses from Old Navy (half price).

The dresses retailed for $40 and $35 but half price they were $37.50. I also earned an extra 260 SB for shopping through the Swagbucks site. After my sales and SB, the $75 purchase cost me $24.90 or something like that. Both dresses were super cute too!

However, I don't want to spend money to earn SB points. Thus, I have been doing a lot of surveys. This is what it looks like on the website.

Lots of surveys available to take

I also redeemed my first SB for a $25 Visa gift card. The gift cards themselves go "on sale" so I redeemed 2,160 SB points for the card.

Swagbucks emailed me a Virtual Visa card, which means that it's good for online shopping or you can add it to apps like Dunkin Donuts. It is legit! I used my Virtual Visa to pay a race entry fee (for a very inexpensive local race coming up) and used the balance to buy Kind Bars from Amazon.

I must confess that I did purchase LaraBars first thinking I had used my Virtual Visa, when I actually used my credit card on file with Amazon.  The second time around, I got it right and used the Virtual Visa.

The Kind Bars and the LaraBars were on sale and Amazon was offering free Prime for 30 days, which I signed up for.  Prime means free shipping. Yes, I now have a lot of bars in my house.

Is this a productive use of my time? At night, I am usually watching TV and playing on my phone anyway, so I figure if I can earn something all the better.