It’s fully Autumn here in Colorado, and winter, along with Christmas, is still a little ways off. But the commercial signs of Christmas are showing up in local stores. While most of us truly want to enjoy Autumn and Thanksgiving well before we dive in to all the beauty and fullness of December and the Christmas season, there is something to be said for a little preparing.
Over the years, my husband and I have not set a robust gift giving budget. For our family other things have taken a higher priority, but there are ways that I have boosted the budget without increasing the main line entry!
There are many ways to keep the gift giving budget stocked outside the normal budget deposits. One way I do that is with these three apps on my phone, as well as some activities that I do online via my laptop or tablet.
Swagbucks is my favorite boosting activity of what I will list here. Most days, while I am doing other work on my computer, I open an additional window and go through a list of Swagbucks “todos” At the same time, I am usually running videos through the Swagbucks “watch” app on my phone. Doing this little bit of multitasking usually nets me one to two $25.00 gift cards for a wide variety of stores, or even a deposit to Paypal, per month. My actual favorite, and easiest way to redeem Swagbucks is for Amazon. I love to build up gift cards in my account at Amazon!
Ibotta is another way that I “multitask” and boost our gift giving budget while doing something that already needs to be done…household shopping. The Ibotta app is on my phone, and whenever do my regular shopping, I just check to see what rebates are available. It’s really sweet when I can match coupons and Ibotta rebates to my shopping list.
how the Ibotta looks today upon opening. See the wide variety of rebate opportunities?
One other app that I use for regular shopping rebates and money making is Checkout 51. On any given week I make as little as $1.00 and up to $5 or $6 on rebates for my regular shopping. Again, when I am making my list, I check to see what rebates are available, and hopefully match those up with a coupon. Once I reach $20 total in rebates, I can cash out the account and have a check sent to me.
What sites or apps do you use to exchange points or rewards for gift cards? Do you use them to boost your gift given budget or in other ways?
Disclaimer: if you sign up for some of these reward sites, I may receive an affiliate compensation.