How I Surprised My Husband With a $500 Free Amazon Gift Card for Christmas

I am so excited! My goal for last year worked and it worked this year again too! I wanted to surprise my husband with a $500 free Amazon gift card to use for Christmas shopping this year – basically a FREE Christmas!

And (drumroll please)….. here’s what our Amazon account looked like after adding that gift:

Yes, I just deposited a $500 free Amazon gift card into our Amazon account. And I did it for FREE! For FREE!! I woke Alex up and said..”log-in to Amazon and check out the gift card balance available right now.”

He was shocked, thankful and so happy that it was essentially his Christmas present to have a free Christmas last year and now for this year as well.

That balance meant that for the next $500 in purchases from Amazon, we paid a big fat $0! And we end up doing nearly all of our shopping on Amazon for Christmas because they have the same or better prices, including on Black Friday, without leaving home, free shipping (and extra benefits as a Prime member), and I don’t have to shop on Thanksgiving but can enjoy the day with my family. So, I will have probably the least stressful Christmas shopping time to-date in my frugal life.

How Do I Earn a Free Amazon Gift Card?

Why am I telling you this? Because I want to show you how I did it so you could do this next year and more. Yes, it’s too late for this year (you could still probably earn $10-$50 this year – including the $5 sign-up bonus HERE) but it’s not too late for the future to pay for Christmas.

Since January, I have been saving my Swagbucks. Have you heard of Swagbucks?  I talk about it HERE where I show 6 Ways I bring in an extra $3,500 a month.

One of those ways is a super easy, brainless and sensible way I bring in $50 a month. But this year, I decided to save it all year until November and let it grow.  And by waiting and “saving” those swagbucks at $50 a month, I had $500 by November! You can cash in your Swagbucks for a number of items, mostly gift cards in different amounts and for different categories (airline and hotel gift cards….I might be saving 2017’s Swagbucks for a free trip…but don’t tell Alex..it might be his Christmas present in 2017. ;)), restaurants, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Apple (need a new iPad?), Kohls, etc. the list goes on. In January, I set out a personal, secret goal of this surprise for Christmas.

So what is Swagbucks?

It’s a search engine like Google, but it’s one where you actually get paid to do your normal Google searches, and just doing them through Swagbucks. I have been doing this one for 7+ years. Each month, I would “cash out” for various gift cards and have that $50 or so monthly to use on whatever I saw fit at the time. It wasn’t until 2015, where I started earmarking the Swagbucks for specific goals. It didn’t start off that high, but has built up to that point without any extra effort. Sometimes I make a lot more too! It doesn’t take me a lot of extra time, in fact none after the few minute registration and set-up. I just do all of my internet browsing through them instead. We talked about this in more depth HERE.

The best news is that it is completely FREE to use! It’s free to sign-up and anyone can. There are no requirements. I know people that pay 1-2 bills each month from this income and occasionally a small vacation.  Others pay for their baby diapers or part of their groceries and more with the money they earn through searching the internet through Swagbucks.  Many others are happy with their occasional FREE Amazon gift card which in itself is treat indeed.

How do I start (Plus $5 Sign-Up Bonus)

It simply requires signing-up through this link HERE, which only takes a few minutes. And by using the provided link, you will also receive an immediate $5 sign-on bonus. Then each day, login through Swagbucks before you start doing anything online, even get paid for going to Facebook! The pay you receive is in the form of gift cards – generally Amazon gift cards for my Christmas spending. They have gift cards to virtually everywhere. Again, $50 extra per month is $50 extra per month and this one does not take extra time after the initial 5-10 minute set-up.

Tips on Maximizing Your Swagbucks

With Swagbucks, like everything you do, there’s always an even better way to maximize your savings!  Check out this list to get started:

• Use Swagbucks as your default search tool – Need to searching for something, anything, on the web?  Use Swagbucks and earn.  
• Install the Swagbucks toolbar to earn even more – If you want to be sure to always be searching – and earning – using Swagbucks, then install their toolbar and make sure each and every search is entered through it.  Looking for Facebook or your favorite site?  Just search in the toolbar.
• Try to meet your daily goal and win even more – Swagbucks helps motivate you to keep earning by giving you an earnings goal every day.  But the best part is if you meet the daily goal that sometimes you will earn even more!
• Following Swagbucks on Facebook and Twitter – Keep following Swagbucks on your favorite social media platforms and be the first to know of special offers to receive more Swagbucks.
• Encourage your friends to sign-up through your link – Don’t miss sharing with your friends the way you are earning your gift cards.  The more that sign up the greater the referral bonus for you.  And yes, that means a lot more Swagbucks in your account!
• Set a goal and work towards it – In 2015, I was cashing in my swagbucks monthly to be able to eat out for free each month (read the post on The Year We Ate Out For Free). It’s been a fun experience and fun to set these goals and meet them every year for years!  Choose your goal and work towards it – one search at a time.

So, if you haven’t heard of Swagbucks, please, please read about it and get signed up. It’s so easy, it takes 5 minutes to get started.  After that, it’s a brainless, effortless way to earn money – you just need time.

If you have heard of Swagbucks, but have not started using it yet…WHY? I showed how we ate out for free for a year, paid for Christmas and will hopefully share a free trip next.  Please just start and before you know it, you will have some nice free things to enjoy in life too!

Have you tried Swagbucks and are you using it daily while you are logging into Facebook, searching the internet, etc.?

How much have you earned so far? 

Finally, we would also highly recommend that you pick up your copy of the Christmas Planner to save big money, time and sanity too!