If You Like Free Stuff...

I love free stuff. What mom doesn't though? Whether you're out in the working world trying to make ends meet or are staying at home trying to get by on a budget, free stuff is always welcome! In the last year I've become quite adept at finding freebies. Whether the freebie is a sample of the newest Kashi bar, a box of cereal, gift cards or cash I love it!

Today, one of my favorite ways to earn freebies is having a birthday celebration and new sign-ups earn bonus points today! I've mentioned SwagBucks before, but let me really break it down for you...

In the last 8 months with SwagBucks I have earned the following:

$25 in cash (added to my PayPal account)

$10 Starbucks gift card

2 $20 pre-paid Mastercards

Not bad for just searching the web huh? Here's how SwagBucks works: instead of using Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc to search the web you use the SwagBucks search engine. To make life really easy for myself, I have the SwagBucks search bar right in my browser toolbar. At random times when you search you will be awarded SwagBucks (SBs). Build up those SwagBucks and you can cash them in for a variety of prizes! My personal favorite prizes are the gift cards and cash obviously.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up! The winning is easy and before you know it you'll be cashing in SBs for great stuff! Click HERE to sign up for SwagBucks!

Speaking of freebies - today is the last day to enter our giveaway from St. Eve Kids! Click HERE to enter!

Fun Mail - Video Clip of the Week

I'm a dork when it comes to the mail. Nick has teased me about my obsession with "getting the mail" since the early days of our marriage. Most of mail we get is junk mail or bills, so I'm not sure why I'm always so intent on getting it every day but I am. This last week of mail though has been great for two reasons - birthday cards for the boys and free stuff for me!

First, the free stuff (because I want you all to get free stuff too)! In the last week I have received a Fiber One Cereal and Bar (not pictured) sample along with a bunch of high value coupons. A $10 Gift Card to a local grocery store as a result of participating in Keebler/Kellogg's deal back in July (an in store display had forms to fill out and send in with receipt and UPC symbols from 5 boxes of participating products). I also received a $10 pre-paid MasterCard from SwagBucks!

What's SwagBucks? It's a nifty way to earn freebies that I am absolutely loving! You simply sign up for a SwagBucks account HERE and then use SwagBucks.com as your search engine (I find them to be about as helpful as Google - it's a rare occurrence I need to use Google in addition to SwagBucks.com). Better yet, you can replace the little search box on the toolbar of your browser with a SwagBucks search box. At random times when you search you are awarded "SwagBucks". Build those bucks up and trade them in for gift cards, toys, electronics, magazine subscriptions, even money for travel! I cashed in about half of my SwagBucks for that MasterCard and am now saving up for more gift cards to use for Christmas presents this coming winter. Better yet, when you sign up a friend (or 4 or 5!) under you, you receive SwagBucks every time they earn some which builds your supply even faster. You know you want to sign up :)

Last Friday the boys received birthday cards in the mail from their Great Aunt Dar (Nick's Aunt). The cards were Hoops and YoYo cards that made noise and the boys were highly entertained by them! Check out the reactions when they first opened them and discovered they made so much noise...

Those boys seriously sat at the table for a solid 20 minutes just opening and closing the cards over and over and over again. All weekend in fact they played with them - so much so that I went to bed each night with the "songs" stuck in my head and by the end of the weekend the cards were just destroyed! Thanks for the fun Aunt Dar - the boys sure loved those cards!