Janelle sent in a fun testimonial of how she was able to get an amazing deal on an iPod Touch, thanks to Swagbucks:
I just wanted to thank you for sharing Swagbucks with us! I’ve been using Swagbucks since July of last year, and have gotten a couple of referrals.
Two days ago, using mostly Swagbucks, I purchased a brand-new iPod Touch from Amazon. I am thrilled with my new purchase, and that it only cost me $10 out of pocket!
Here’s what I did: First, I earned as many Swagbucks as I could through the regular search, referrals, daily polls, and trusted surveys. Every time my total got up to 450, I redeemed it for an Amazon gift card, and put it immediately into my Amazon account.
You are only able to request five of the same gift cards per month, and it takes several weeks to get them, so I didn’t want to have to wait once I had the total.
Earlier this week, I had $135 in Amazon gift cards accumulate in my account, and the iPod was on sale for $200. I was $65 short, and I was trying really hard to only purchase it with gift cards, so I knew I couldn’t get it. But then I remembered that I had $65 dollars in gift cards to Best Buy. So I took my Best Buy gift cards to the store and used them to buy Amazon gift cards. (Yes, they allow you to do that!)
I had to spend $10 out of pocket, because the Amazon cards only come in increments of $25 at Best Buy, but that’s ok with me. I applied these Amazon gift cards to my Amazon account, and had enough for the iPod and several screen protectors! -Janelle
I LOVE Swag Bucks! Right now I use them to purchase Amazon gift cards to get Pull Ups for my son. Hopefully in the near future (fingers crossed) I will be able to use it as a treat for me (mommy’s extras:-) Thank you for sharing Janelle. You rock!
Great job on working the deal!
I got my 8GB iPod touch ‘free’ from OfficeDepot with store credit from rebates. I racked up quite a bit during the 100% back promos. Technically, I could either say I got storage boxes, needed office suplies and cases of water free…or the iPod. But the iPod sounds much more impressive. 🙂
Awesome deal. I love Swagbucks.It’s great to be able to earn and save money for Christmas and I already have $70 in my amazon account towards gifts,
Way to go! I love my Touch, it’s like my second brain now. I’ve only bought one 99 cent app for the whole thing. I use productivity apps, the calendar, games, Nook AND Kindle and more. It’s absolutely awesome. There are also great savings apps, like KeyCard that keeps virtual copies of all your savings cards – library cards, too!
Hey Crystal, that might be a great post or series of posts – great free/cheap mobile apps!
Sweet!
I didn’t even know best buy sold gift cards for other stores . Most other stores will not let you buy a gift card with a gift card so good to know I can at best buy . Thanks
I need help getting referals. I am not a good sales person! I would love to start saving them up for Christmas.
Thats great! I am earning swagbucks for Christmas gifts.
I just purchased 4 airline tickets to Floriday for my entire family, using swagbucks. No cost, that is an amazing vacation Now my kids want to Swag too.
Awesome!
I just purchased all my sons birthday gifts for his birthday next month using my Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks! I got it all for no cost to me, now I am saving mine up for some Christmas gifts! I love swagbucks!!
That’s great! I love Swagbucks too and used my accumulation of Amazon gift cards to get my daughter’s Christmas presents last year. Hoping to do the same this year. It’s slow going to accumulate them $5 at a time, but it pays off in the end for just a couple minutes each day.
I also recently discovered that Bing has a rewards program for searching and doing other tasks and they have a $5 Amazon gift card for 541 points. You get 250 points to start, so you’re already almost halfway to a gift card just for signing up. I’ve only been using it for a little while and I’ve already got one $5 gc and am working my way to another one now.
Here is a link to sign up for Bing rewards:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9778718&rrid=18782770-7B25-4745-88C6-41F57AEAC2A5
I got my ipod ($200) and speakers ($300) entirely free! I saved points from playing the Westlaw and Lexis games in law school. Except for one study guide I picked up with points, I kept accumulating until graduation, when I had enough to buy the above plus about 5-6 older movies. It was a little tricky at the end know if I’d accumlate enough in time, but well worth it in the end.
This is BRILLIANT!! I never would have thought to use the Best Buy gift cards to purchase Amazon gift cards!! I have $25 that I earned through reward zone…now I know exactly how I will spend it!! Great job!
I just got a new bread machine with Swagbucks Amazon gift cards. I came today and I just baked my first loaf.
I did the same thing with a Wii Fit!!! It took me 5 months to collect all the Amazon gift cards I needed via swagbucks, but it was worth it when I got a $95 Wii Fit shipped to me totally free!!!
Cool! Am I the only one living under the false impression that you could only use $15 of Amazon gift cards (3 X $5 cards) in any one order?! I wish I had known you could use as many as you want, so thanks for sharing. I do only earn about 5 – $5 per year, though, through Swagbucks.
Yes, you’re incorrect. I purchased earrings for under $30 this year and paid the whole thing with Amazon gift cards.
I wonder if that’s if you hold on to the codes and use them when you check out? I always just add the card as I receive them, so it has no clue how many cards are being used, just a total dollar amount.
I add them to my amazon account gift card balance as they accrue and spend them all at once.
On Amazon if you go to Your amazon then Your Account then in the payment section Gift Cards and click on gift card balance it will show you how much credit you have.
Good job! I’m currently saving my Amazon Gift Cards (from Swagbucks) for a Kindle. I’m currently at $85. It’s hard to wait, but I’ll be even more happy to get it knowing it was “free”.
I am exactly at the same point you are in saving for my Kindle too! Good luck! 🙂 It’s hard being patient sometimes!
I have received free Best Buy cards before too (one from Napster and one from My Coke Rewards) and we turned them into iTunes gift cards.
I love my iPod touch. I dont watch TV but I hate my house quiet. I have the Pandora app on my iPod and have a set of speakers in the kitchen so there is always music in the house. I pay for my Pandora ($35 a year) but soooo much cheaper than cable and I use it a ton.
That is awesome, congrats! I am doing something similar.. except I am saving up for an Amazon Kindle :o)
I was saving up for a kindle the same way and,yes, it is slow going, but it makes me appreciate my reward. My hubby saw me saving so hard that he surprised me with the kindle for my birthday. So now I am going to pick a new challenge – and that bread maker sounds great!
This totally sounds like something I would do. I love Swagbucks. I am saving my amazon cards to (hopefully) have a cashless Christmas!
How long did it take you total? It takes me a whole month to get a gift card … and I have to work pretty hard at it to get that far. Do the referalls make all the difference?
Not at all. I have two referrals (neither of which is active), and I usually get a $5 Amazon giftcard every two weeks or so. Just stop using your bookmarks and search for sites instead. I also work about 15 hours a month at home, which requires Internet fact checking, so I get some that way, too.
Brilliant! Way to think outside the box! I’ve been slacking on my swagbucks lately. This gives me more incentive to pick it up again, thanks!
That’s impressive. Thanks for sharing! How much does it cost monthly once you have the iPad?
Oops. I meant iPod. 🙂
iPod touch is Wi-Fi only, I think. So it’s like an iPod, but you can access the internet if you are in range somewhere. No monthly data fees like the iPhone.
there are no monthly subscription costs for the ipod, unless you sign up to some kind of subscription service. Maybe you are thinking of the ipad which you can buy with 3g and a subscription to wireless internet?
Ipod touch just have wifi 🙂
Do download the kindle app though – I LOVE that thing! I don’t think I’d ever want to buy a ipad to read books on but I love being able to read a little bit of a book no matter where I am, in the drs office, at the line in the store, on break at work.. so easy to get little spurts of reading in now that I wouldn’t have thought about before!
Great job! I need to sign up for swagbucks!
That is so awesome!! Nice strategy, Janelle! 🙂
That is an awesome story. Thanks for sharing.
What a great idea to buy gift cards at Best Buy (or other stores people might have given you gift cards). I never thought to do such a simple thing!
I love swagbucks – I’m using the paypal option to get cash to save up for something we need for our farm – an egg incubator:)!
Way to go, Janelle! Enjoy your iPod Touch. Definitely get the free kindle app on it so you can get free books that pop up on Amazon all the time. And thanks for sharing your story so we can all be encouraged by the sweetness of saving up for something we want!
That is fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing. I think I need to sign up for Swagbucks 🙂
Janelle – I was really impressed that you were able to buy it for $10, but then I was REALLY impressed that you even thought of using your Best Buy cards to buy Amazon gift cards. Brilliant! Good things come to those who wait. And the rewards always seems so much sweeter. Nice job!