Earning Free Gift Cards through Rewards Programs

For the past few years, I have been exploring some offbeat ways to save money while being a stay-at-home mom.  Being here for my kids in this season of life is my priority right now because that’s what God has specifically called me to do, but there are still some at-home methods I can use to either save or make a little extra money on the side.

I will preface this list by saying that you can’t just earn money for free; there is always a cost.  In this case, your investment is time and energy.  For some of these ideas, there is very little investment; others are a bit more involved.  These are things that work for me in my season of life, because my children have a mutual afternoon naptime of about 2-3 hours.  I usually use this chunk of time for myself, since the rest of the day is pretty busy.  I often spend this time sitting in bed reading or surfing the Internet reading blogs, searching Pinterest for new recipes, or catching up on facebook or email.  I’m already on the Internet during this time, so these activities are convenient for me.  Anyway, here’s a short list of ways to earn free gift cards that have worked for me:

1. Swagbucks: I’ve been using Swagbucks for about three years now, and it is definitely one of my favorite ways to earn gift cards.  To give you perspective, I have earned about $320 in Amazon gift cards since becoming a Swagbucks member, so that’s right around $100 in free Amazon gift cards per year. And I’m not even that hardcore about it.  Some days I’ll spend a little more time trying to earn points, and other days I do the bare minimum or don’t even do it at all.  There are SO many ways to earn points through Swagbucks, but I typically use their search engine (which randomly rewards points for searches), answer the daily poll, watch videos, and complete surveys.  Money Saving Mom has a whole series on 15 Ways to Earn More Swagbucks which includes a lot more detail on how to maximize your earning.  You can redeem your points for many other things, including restaurant gift cards, electronics, department store gift cards, and gas cards, but I find the Amazon gift card to be the best use of my points since I can order gifts, books, toiletries, and even groceries through Amazon.  Swagbucks also has a fantastic referral program, so if you do sign up, would you consider using my referral link? :)
2. Shopkick: Shopkick is another good program to use for earning free gift cards, especially if you enjoy browsing in stores (which is fun to me!).  Basically, you download the app for your phone (they offer both Android and iPhone apps) and each time you enter a participating retailer, you can earn points or “kicks” for walking in.  For our local area, the participating stores for walk-ins are Target, Old Navy, American Eagle, and Best Buy.  Literally all you have to do is walk into the store and you’ll automatically earn kicks (anywhere from 35-200 kicks depending on the day and store).  Most of the time, you can also earn kicks by scanning specific products at stores after walking in (Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Walgreens, Costco, and CVS).  The app tells you what products to look for and you earn points by scanning the barcode using your phone.  I redeem my points for Target gift cards since that’s my favorite place to shop, but Billy uses his points for Best Buy gift cards.  It does take a little longer to earn gift cards compared to Swagbucks, but I find it kinda fun and easy to do, especially if I’m already going to that store or will be nearby anyway. I have used my Shopkick-earned Target gift cards to buy fun things for myself, gifts for other people, and even diapers.  We have also earned Shopkick points on date nights since I like to walk around stores and window shop anyway, so you can even turn it into a frugal date night!  Yes, we might be a little weird, but it’s fun!
3. Bing Rewards: I just signed up for Bing Rewards this week, so I can’t attest to its long-term results yet, but it is SO easy.  Once you sign up, you can complete up to 30 searches on Bing (I really just click the links in the related searches list so I don’t have to think about it) and you automatically earn 15 points a day that way.  They usually also have one or two “special offers” that you can click on that allow you to earn one or two points.  And that’s it.  So I’m only earning 15-20 points per day, but if I do that every day I can earn one $5 Amazon gift card per month.  That doesn’t seem like much, but there’s also very little investment on my part.  It took me less than 3 minutes to meet my quota for today, so to me that’s worth it.  They also have a referral program, which isn’t amazing but can still be helpful with maximizing your earning. 

These three rewards programs can really help you save money in the long run, especially on fun purchases.  We try not to pay for anything we order through Amazon since I usually have some gift cards stored up.  Last year, I bought all of the girls’ Christmas gifts with Amazon gift cards earned through Swagbucks.  Over the summer, we used them to purchase a new single stroller for Piper.  Currently, we’re using them to purchase this season’s episodes of The Walking Dead since we don’t subscribe to cable (another great way to save money!).  We are also planning on using these rewards sites to fund our date nights, since many of them have restaurant and Regal Cinemas or Fandango gift cards available as rewards.  If you’re interested in earning some free gift cards and have a little time to invest online or on your phone, I would really encourage you to try them.  I was very skeptical at first, but now I am seeing the huge perks for myself and my family in this season of life.