I have a very exciting offer for both new and old Swagbucks members that are readers of this blog.  I have mentioned Swagbucks a few of times here on this blog.  But for those of you who are new, this is the Skinny on Swagbucks:

Swagbucks is a search and win search engine.  You earn Swagbucks when you search the web through them.  I will be honest and admit that  I am huge Google search user.  I use it several times a day.  At first I was a bit skeptical about Swagbucks.  However, that soon changed when I found out that Swagbucks is powered by Google and Ask.com.  So far I have been satisfied with my search results and have even compared search results side by side and they are very similar.  Then I was afraid about the change, after all, typing Google.com on my browser bar was a habit for me.  But I don’t even have to worry about that anymore thanks to the search toolbar Swagbucks has for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.  Searching and earning Swagbucks while I do that has never been so easy.

I use Swagbucks every single day!  I am accumulating any Swagbucks I earn to help buy gifts for this Holiday season and lower how much cash I spend.  I regularly use the search bar I downloaded for Firefox, the browser I regularly use, and it makes it so much easier.  Swagbucks is introducing THREE new features:

1)  BRAND NEW Swag Bucks toolbar:  the new toolbar will be released on Sept 1st and is compatible with IE, Firefox and Safari.   Members will be able to log into to their account through the new toolbar in addition to being able to track their points through the toolbar.  Additionally, in September, EVERY SINGLE DAY, we will release a special “Swag Code” through the toolbar.   The only way to get the code is by having the toolbar installed. By the end of the month, those that have installed the toolbar should be able to rack up 30 FREE SWAG BUCKS!

2) SWAGGO! -  Swaggo is Swagbucks.com answer to BINGO!   During the month of September when you order selected prizes through the Swag Store you will be sent a special SWAGGO piece.  If you collect all the pieces in a row, you will let us know and will be awarded 1000 Swag Bucks!   This is a fun promotion that will only be held from Sept 1st – Sept 31st.   We will have a complete list of prizes that will award Swaggo pieces by the end of this week.

3)  A new “Back to School” section in the Swag Store:  This section will feature everything your child may need as they get ready for the new school year.  The “Back to School” section will feature an assortment of items for elementary schoolers up to high schoolers!

If you are already a Swagbucks member, download the new toolbar right here.  I am excited about the 30 Swagbuck codes as just 45 Swagbucks get you a $5 Amazon Gift Card.  I love those!

If you are not a Swagbucks member I have an exclusive offer for you: This week and through 9/10 you can become a Swagbucks member and earn up to 5 Swagbucks right off the bat. All you need to do is use the code swagsense (case sensitive) when you register. In addition to earning 3 Swagbucks for becoming a new member you will earn an additional two Swagbucks because you used my special code.  Go here to become a new member.

Looking to make some money from home?  One easy way I have found to do this is by participating in market research studies.  I was introduced to Focus Forward, a company that does this, via the blog Money Saving Methods.  If you have not checked out Money Saving Methods yet, Carrie, the owner, shares not only money saving offers but mostly money making opportunities.

Yesterday she  shared about the following studies currently available:

• Nationwide College Students Study – $50

• Nationwide Women’s Produce Study – $150

• 1 Week Health Study Journal – $350

• Nationwide Men & Women Craft Study – $50

• $125 Nationwide Study for Creative Thinkers

• $150 New York City Study on Cell Phones

If you are interested in learning more about these studies or think you may qualify for any of them check out Carrie’s posts here and here.  You will find all of the information to become a member of Focus Forward and how to sign up for these studies.

Sorry guys, code should be fixed now and working.

Almost two months ago I shared with you how I was going to “earn money from home” by using Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is a search and win search engine.  You earn “Swagbucks” when you search the web through them.   I have been using ti dayly for the last two months and average two, but for sure one Swagbuck earned per day.  To make sure I use it everyday, I use it to search for the sites I visit everyday.  For example, I know a lot of you visit this blog via Swagbucks and thank you for that!  But the best way to accelerate your Swagbucks earnings is by participating in Swagbucks events.  For example every Friday is Mega Swagbucks day.  Last Friday, I earned 10 Swagbucks right off the bat!  It really made my night and I was excited to share that on my Facebook page. In addition you can accelerate how many Swagbucks you earn by spreading the word between friends and family and getting them to start doing the same.

I am being very diligent about using Swagbucks because I want to accumulate as many Swagbucks as possible to help fund my Holiday Gift Fund.  So far, it’s looking good and I would love to be able to trim my out of pocket expense by redeeming Swagbucks earned for Target Gift Cards or Amazon Gift certificates.

This week Swagbucks is launching a lot of new features on their website including:

• On Tuesday: Video Game Section Expansion: We will be adding 1000’s of new and used titles to the video game section of the Swag Store, and offering a special sale on many of these titles.

• On Wednesday:  Shop&Earn Favorites: This great new feature gives you the ability to choose your ‘Favorite’ stores in our Shop&Earn mall, and receive updates on new coupons that originate from these retailers.  So not only will you get SwagBucks for your purchases, you will be notified immediately when a great deals becomes available!

• On Thursday:  Swagbucks.com 2.5 Launch.  Swagbucks.com 2.5 is the next evolution of the Swag Bucks homepage. It will feature a new cleaner look, with easier navigation & quick links and a few new special element.  Swag Bucks Widget:    The widget  will feature a search box, prize images and swag code alerts.

To celebrate these new additions on the Swagbucks website, Swagbucks has provided Common Sense with Money readers who have not signed up with Swagbucks yet a special code.  In addition to earning 3 Swagbucks when you first sign up with Swagbucks, by using the code MONEYCOMMONSENSECODE (case sensitive), you will get an additional 3 Swagbucks for a total of 6 Swagbucks for signing up with the website.  This new code works for new sign ups only.  This code is available for new sign ups between now and June 16th at 11:59pm PST. If you are already signed up for Sawbucks, you can use this code to get friends to give Swagbucks a try and earn extra Swagbucks form their referrals.

If you are signing up for the first time, please check out my initial post about Swagbucks.  I explain how I have added the Swagbucks search bar to my browser to make use of this search engine easier and faster for me.  So, if you haven’t yet I highly recommend you give Swagbucks a try.  Make sure to add the search back to your browser so it becomes a habit to use it faster.

This offer is expired now.

Pinecone Research is still looking for people.  This time they are looking for males ages 18-24.  So, if you are a male in that age group or know one who would like to get paid for theit opinion, share this with them.

Offer has expired now, sorry!

Great news! Pinecone Research is accepting applications. Pinecone wants to hear from you and pay you for your opinion. Pinecone Research is one of the most reputable companies I have heard about. I have actually been hearing about it for the past two years but open sign up period has always been elusive. It is great to save money but it is also a great idea to have a chance to make some money from the comfort of your own home.

I hope someone who has been working with them will share their experience in the comments section.

Tonight on our radio show Money4Moms, Tara and I will be continuing our series “Make Money from Home.”  Since we have heard so many great things and successful stories from other Swagbucks users we knew that should be our first stop.

Here’s the skinny on Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is a search and win search engine.  You earn “Swagbucks” when you search the web through them.  I will be honest and admit that  I am huge Google search user.  I use it several times a day.  At first I was a bit skeptical about Swagbucks.  However, that soon changed when I found out that Swagbucks is powered by Google and Ask.com.  So far I have been satisfied with my search results and have even compared search results side by side and they are very similar.  Then I was afraid about the change, after all, typing Google.com on my browser bar was a habit for me.  But I don’t even have to worry about that anymore thanks to the search toolbar Swagbucks has for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.  Searching and earning Swagbucks while I do that has never been so easy.

Like I already mentioned, you earn “Swagbucks” when you search the web.  Swagbucks also runs free Swagbucks promotions for even more chances to earn prizes.  There are other types of prizes you can redeem by using the Swagbucks you have earned but I particularly like the $5 Amazon Gift certificate (45 Swagbucks gets you one $5 Amazon GC). It’s a great way to take advantage of Amazon deals without spending your own money.

This week and through 4/20 you can become a Swagbucks member and earn up to 5 Swagbucks right off the bat.  All you need to do is use the code MONEYCOMMONSENSE (in all caps) when you register.  In addition to earning 3 Swabucks for becoming a new member you will earn an additional two Swagbucks because you used my special code.

If you become a new member, follow my advice and make it easy for you to use it regularly.  If you use Internet explorer as your browser, download the Swagbucks toolbar so you can search through it more easily.  Your new search toolbar would look like this

If you use Firefox, add the Firefox plugin.  You can set Swagbucks as your default search engine option within the menu at the top-right of your window.  Your search bar would look like this:

I hope you tune in to our radio show this evening, Wednesday 4/15 at 9PM CSt/10PM EST.  You will hear more success stories from people have been using Swagbucks  for a while.  We have as a very special guest Andrea from MommySnacks.net.  To tune in you just need to follow this link to listen online.  If you can’t tune in live, you can also listen on demand through that link or by using the blue Blogtalkradio player on my right side bar.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember that I have mentioned being a late adopter of technologies.  Yes, I am often good about being the first in trying some things, but I usually wait until the price of some of these new technologies comes down to adopt them.  For a while, I have been wanting to test those Smartphones, but wondered how they would fit into my life and if there would be of any benefit.  Did I really need them? and here’s a a sad confession: I don’t even use the text messaging feature of my cell phone, was a Smartphone too much of a leap for me?

As part of being an Elevenmom, Walmart offered us an opportunity to participate in a long term interactive test of Smartphones.  A few of the Elevenmoms already owned Smartphones and were quick to help narrow down the choices to either an iPhone or a Blackberry Storm.  From there, the decision of which one to get was mine.  As with any other big purchase decision, I turned to my husband for help researching the phone prior to purchase. Immediately he went to the Consumer’s Report website to find out more information on the phones and the cell companies that serviced those phones.  We also visited our local Walmart to check out both phones and how user friendly they were.  While there, we also learned it would be smart to call our local stores to make sure that when we were ready to purchase, the phones would be in stock.

Having decided on an iPhone, we called our three local stores to find out which one had them in stock.  Then we headed to the store.  I have to say my personal shopping experience was very straightforward and as short as it gets. A lot of this was due to the pre-buying research we had done.  We also didn’t have a phone contract to worry about since ours had expired more than a year ago, so we were “free agents” if you will.  Since we knew what we wanted, and why we wanted it, we didn’t waste any time getting a sales spiel from the sales person.  The only thing we had to decide on the spot was the cell phone plan we would get.  It did take some time to get our new cell phone contract set up on the system and complete the purchase transaction.  Throughout it all, the sales person handling it all was very helpful and knowledgeable, which was of course a great advantage.  In total, from the time we walked in to the time we left it took about 1hour and fifteen minutes.  I took some of that time to do some light grocery shopping and entertain the boys a bit.

I have had the iPhone for about three weeks now, and I have waited this long to share this with you because I wanted to give you some feedback on how it has changed my life.  First, the process of downloading applications has been slow for me.  I have relied on the other mom’s input regarding what applications have improved their life.  I have particularly found a grocery list, personal to-do list and the ‘All Recipes’ applications very helpful.

• I have mentioned before that menu planning is a struggle for me.  But the Dinner Spinner iPhone App helps me find easy, quick and proven recipes to make with the ingredients that I have on hand.
• Here’s another struggle for me, every time I go to the grocery store, I make a list and I always end up leaving it on the counter top of my kitchen.  ‘It  never  fails.’  Now, I enter the list on my phone (and I can even organize it by aisle), and the phone list is always ready for me.
• Here’s another way the iPhone has helped me: how many times have you been to the store, but can’t remember the deal that you read about?  Then you get home and pull out your bags, and then it hits you.  Well, a Smartphone with 3G access allows you to open your favorite ‘deals website’ to double check their list of deals, so you won’t forget about anything.
• If you rely a lot on Google Calendar, the CalenGoo application lets you access and modify this info from your Smartphone.  Never miss anything again.
• If you are a blogger who uses Wordpress, you can also download the Wordpress application to have access to your blog on the go.  This is how I was able to edit one of my posts this past Wednesday, while I was at the Milwaukee Zoo, through my iPhone.  If you use it regularly for this purpose, then it could be considered a business expense and be able to deduct it from your blogging income.  Oh! and let’s not forget to mention that you can use Twitter and Facebook.
• Finally, as a mom, you can also download applications to help you keep your kids entertained when you most need it.  How many times have you handed your cell phone to your kid while at the check out lane to keep him from ‘losing it’?  Well, now you can do that, but now, he can actually do something that will keep him entertained other than by hitting the number keys.  There are a lot of educational game applications available for different age groups that you can download for free in some cases.

So, yeah, as you can see I have become quite addicted to my iPhone, and that’s the only drawback I have found.  Unfortunately it is easy to let it become a time sucker but as with any other lifestyle technology, it is up to you to set limits and boundaries.  I also don’t want to mislead you, an iPhone is not “cheap.”  It goes for $297 each, plus a monthly extra charge of $30 on your cell phone bill for the data package.  But I like to define frugality not only in monetary terms but also in terms of value.  An item’s worth should not be defined only by it’s price but also by the value that it provides.  I think, and other Smartphone users will probably agree, that a Smartphone is worth it.  However, you do have to weigh your own personal lifestyle to see if it really is worth it for you.

For the past few days I have noticed a few other blogs mention Cashbaq in their deals. I was a little hesitant to look into this, mostly because I am already signed up with Ebates. I didn’t want to deal with another account to keep track of. However, a few bloggers on Twitter were kind and showed me how easy it is to sign up for Cashbaq and why I should do it.

Signing up for Cashbaq only requires a name and email account. That was a plus to me at the time since the computer I was using didn’t have Roboform on it yet. I went back later to my account to add my payment information. This was another plus for Cashbaq. I can get paid via Paypal, which is much easier and should be faster than getting a check in the mail. Another great thing about using Cashbaq is that you can get your rebates back monthly. That is if you accumulate more than $10 in cash back in any given month. In contrast, Ebates pays once a quarter, after you meet the minimum amount required of $5.01.

I am not giving up on Ebates. As a matter of fact it is beneficial to have both. Even though there is some overlap in the merchants both companies offer, the cash back discount for some of them may differ. For example, instead of getting 15% in your purchases at Restaurant.com through Ebates, you can get 30% back through Cashbaq. That $25 Gift Certificate is now only $1.40 through Cashbaq instead of $1.70 through Ebates.

Cashbaq is offering a $5 bonus when you sign up with them. Use my referral link and not only will you get your bonus but so will I, thank you so much!

A reader left me a comment asking me how I come across these deals. There’s some method to the madness but this is how I generously find out about the deals going on:

1. Doing my own research: A lot of this is part of my own shopping around for things that I need. I am regularly on the lookout for things on sale that my home needs. Since I started this blog, I also keep an eye out for things I think my readers may need as well. Spotting your own deal has to do with knowing what’s a good sale. I am always comparison shopping and have been blessed with good memory for some things. Remembering prices and sales comes easy to me and that helps in spotting a good sale price or discount.
2. Getting a helping hand: They say it takes a village to raise a child, I say it takes a village to spot a deal. Communities like Hotcouponworld and Slickdeals make it easy on everyone to find the deals. There is a community out there of deal seekers that are not only looking for the deal but also willing to share it with others. I also regularly get emails from readers sharing their own finds with me so I can then share them with you. Thank you!
3. Networking: I subscribed to a lot of great blogs. It would be impossible for me to mention favorites because it would be a really long list. I get a lot of deals from them, after giving credit of course! I also recently joined Twitter and have been finding deals there as well. That’s how I found out the Ralph Lauren Towels deal from Meredith. It really shows you the value of networking, Meredith’s is not a deal blog but she shared about what she had done that day and in doing so let others know about this deal.

I don’t have a problem sharing with you how I find the deals that I find. I hope that visiting this blog provides you with ideas and tools so that you can find your own deals. It is my intention, though, to make your life easier by being an informational resource that saves you time. This is what’s funny about what I do: I have never had more fun doing a “job” than I do in keeping this blog. Doing this is something I really enjoy because it is something that I like doing. When I used to work as an auditor, and I loved being one, the days dragged by and I can’t say I looked forward to the next day. But as silly as it sounds, I look forward to writing the next money saving blog entry.

This morning I sent out 6 rebates out in the mail. Great! you might be thinking but actually a few of those rebates could have been mailed months ago.
These are three mistakes I was doing and the easy fixes I found for them:

• “I lost the receipt/Form/UPC for this rebate.”

Solution: Implement an easy organization system. I have turned an old wipes tub into my “Rebate Box.” In it I keep letter sized envelopes, a notebook, address labels and stamps. As soon as I get a rebate form I am interested in doing I put that form inside one of the envelopes. As I compile the rest of the requirements for the rebate (usually cash register and UPC codes) I enclose them in the same envelope. When I have gathered all of the requirements then my rebate is almost ready to go out. All I need to do is address this envelope and complete the form.

• “I missed out the rebate submission deadline.” and “Yay! I got a check in the mail, but I am not sure what it was for.”

Solution: Get your rebate out as soon as you have all requirements together. This one was a big one for me. I had been dragging my feet forever to get a couple of rebates out that I missed out on the submission date. Use the notebook in your “Rebate Box” to keep track of rebate deadlines. Also used this same notebook to keep track of those rebates you sent out and reconcile this list with the checks you receive when they start coming.

• “I am overwhelmed, this rebate stuff is too much work.”

Solution: Evaluate and establish guidelines for what rebates you want to do. Rebating CAN be a lot of work if you decide to pursue every rebate out there. I recently came across a form for a rebate to get $1 off meat or chicken after purchase of salad dressings. Where after the cost of the stamp, all I would really be saving is 58 cents. I can save that so much easier by just using a coupon or implementing another easier to do money saving strategy. So establish a lower limit on the rebates you want to do. I have decided nothing less that $5.00 is worth my time anymore. UNLESS, it is for a product I actually use very often. This is the second guideline to establish, consider doing rebates for those items you actually need and will use. A few months ago there was a rebate to get $8 back when you purchased hair coloring for men. Sure after rebate I get this for free but there’s no need for this in our household.

Right now I am saving all the money I receive from rebates to fund our Holiday Gift fund. It’s great to save without feeling a budget crunch.