Easy Money?

I've been reading several personal finance blogs, mostly trying to get ideas about how people save money. A lot of these bloggers mention surveys and I thought I'd throw my 2¢ in on how I've been getting things for free.


One site I use is e-Miles. Basically, earning opportinitues are emailed to you and you earn miles for commenting on the email and if you buy or try things, you get additional miles. You have to pick an airline to deposit your miles to, and everytime you hit 500, you can transfer those miles to your airline rewards account. I've been doing this one for a year and I've added 1,000 miles to my airline rewards program. A nice addition to my account since I only took 2 flights last year!


Another site I use is e-rewards. I think you have to be invited to this one, and for the life of me, I don't know how I got invited! With this one, you earn points by taking surveys. They aren't too involved, so it is kind of nice. I joined in Dec 06, and I've earned 1,000 airline miles, 1 year subscriptions to Seventeen, Redbook, Interview, Harper's Bazaar, and Fast Company, and a 10% coupon from Sony (my daughter used to buy a new camera). That is not bad for just answering some questions here and there.


I just started using Mypoints, based on what other bloggers were saying. I haven't accrued too many points yet, but I'm trying!


I also signed up for the rewards program with my bank, Fifth Third. These are on our debit cards, so my husband and I are earning points seperatley. I just ordered a $10 gas card from BP for my daughter off the points hubby has earned. I'm kind of holding out on mine, not sure why!

I got a $50 Best Buy gift card and a $25 Cabela's gift card from Citibank "Thank You" points I've been accumulating. I had opened a checking account there to get a free ipod (which got stolen 3 days later at my daughter's Jr High School), and so I just do a direct deposit into that account to pay on my credit card, so I earn double points! Anyway, I used those for Christmas gifts! Oh, and I also have points from Bank of America that I used to get a $50 MasterCard that we used for Christmas, too!

Then there is Speedway. We use a "Speedy Rewards" card every time we get gas. For a while they were offering 5¢ off if you used the card, but that stopped a couple months ago. I've earned one $10 gas card so far. I'm really close to another one. I'd probably earn points faster if I bought more stuff inside, but I try to avoid going in there because it would be all candy bars and chips for me!

So there you have it! Now that I look it all over, it seems like a fair amount of money I've "earned" without really spending anything extra. Not bad!