Trying to afford games on an empty wallet

bkjohns1

bkjohns1

CAGiversary!
Hey fellow CAGs,

I've been a long time CAG; short time poster on the forums.

Due to financial pressures coming to a head in 2010 and difficulty making ends meet in 2011, I have been forced to a fairly strict budget that has no money for video games. As a result I have looked for ways to alternatively fund my gaming habit. This has led me down the path of rewards websites. I avoid sites that are get this free by doing these offers; I have gotten nothing but spam trying to do those. So I am only going to share sites that I have gotten a payout from.

You can view my quarterly 2012 pickup blogs that follow my exploits of trying to earn "free" money and how I spent it here:
Financial Phoenixdown
Game Pickups first quarter 2012
Game Pickups second quarter 2012
Game Pickups third quarter 2012
Game Pickups fourth quarter 2012 (Pros & Cons too)

Game Pickups for 2013 was another stellar year of about $700.

Game Pickups for 2014 was a great year of $770.

I had been trying to contribute to the CAG community by posting free magazine links in the proper forum. Better yet, just register on these sites (freebizmag.com, rewardsgold.com, or mercurymagazines.com) to get the offers emailed to you. Follow Rewards Gold on Twitter because they frequently tweet out short lived offers. These magazines are free/NO credit card required, but do require you to jump through some hoops. Thus you could look forward to top titles such as Field & Stream, Maxim, Road & Track, Autoweek, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Entertainment Weekly, Us Weekly, etc. along with some niche magazines I have never heard of but may be of interest to someone. Don't just think of yourself; give subscriptions to your friends and family.

GarrettKapman said:
bkjohns,
just wanted to thank you for posting all these free mag deals. i've been able to take advantage of some of them.
Click to expand...

tier1dc said:
this is great. thanks.
Click to expand...

In order to help people out, I am going to post about some things I've done or noticed.


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-edit- added new thread link 4/5/2013

-edit- added quote from WoF about Sony Rewards pts 7/23/2014

-edit- added 2014 blog link and names of free magazine sites 2/16/2015

-edit- moved the credit card summary to its own post 3/9/2015

-edit- Hypertoken admits he is an asshole, and he certainly proves it.

 
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The proof is in the pudding.

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Bing Rewards

A sure but steady way to get Amazon gift cards is through Bing.

I earn points just by using their search engine. There is a handy icon on the website that can be clicked to view what you can do and have done to earn your points for the day.

I can usually get a $5 Amazon gift card each month. While it is not much, it is an easy reward for minimal daily effort of just doing your normal searches or even just checking out Bing's top searches and the related searches.

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Earned a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing
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And they do work:
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I've been entering in these CAPTCHA codes for over a week now for every 3 swagbucks from the TV. Hopefully they will go away when then end the "Carnival" bonus period.
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-edit 28June2012- I am still entering CAPTCHAs.
 
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Toluna pays me for taking surveys. I got a $20 check in the mail.
 
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Some additional tips on earning swagbucks:

  • Install the toolbar which will get you 1 swagbuck for the first time the browser is launched for the day.
  • Complete the NOSO (No Obligation Special Offers) for 2 points which only takes a half-minute to skip all the offers.
  • Complete trusted surveys. You get at least 1 swagbuck for attempting a survey with a max of 5 per day. Some days there won't be any trusted surveys.
    • You could earn more from Trusted Surveys than you would in "viewing" 2 hours of SBTV.
      • This is only if you fall into the interest group they are looking for; otherwise you may waste time being disqualified.
  • Complete offers that are on the front page or the mail section, only if you are interested in them.
    • Sometimes they don't always payout.
      • I filled out a thing about getting insurance rate quotes for swagbucks, but all I got instead was a ton of phone calls. Of which, one guy asked, "Why are you asking for a quote when your current insurance provider was already so low?"
 
Get swagbucks by being "social" using Facebook, Twitter, and their blog.
Hey Swaggernauts! I know how much you all love to earn, and that’s why I’m here to ensure that you are reaping the full benefits of Swagbucks and taking advantage of all our rewarding outlets. We pride ourselves on our active and vocal community, especially throughout our social platforms, which is why we offer many ways for you to earn through them.

FACEBOOK

I think it’s safe to say that we have one of the most active Facebook communities in existence , and I love it! From time to time, The Swag Guy or myself will be in the mood for a fun game, and we conduct it on Facebook.

Hangman – Everyone loves a classic round of hangman, right? Here’s how it works – I come up with a word or a phrase. The first four people to respond to my post on Facebook regarding a game of hangman will get to play. Of course everyone else is encouraged to watch and play along, but shouting out is never appreciated. These four players takes turns guessing letters until one of them guesses the phrase correctly. That player will be hooked up with 100 Swag Bucks! The other three players will go home with a nice consolation prize for participating in the fun.

Name That Item – Here’s your shot at winning one of our awesome prizes available in our Swag Store. We will post an image of a small portion of one of the items in the Swag Store. The first person to correctly name the item and include their Swag Name will get that item for FREE!

Trivia – Never a dull moment here at Swagbucks. Sometimes we hop on the Facebook wall to ask some intriguing Trivia questions. The first person to answer correctly and include their Swag Name will be hooked up with 100 Swag Bucks!

Be on the lookout – you never know when we might pop in to play a fun Facebook game to give away some Swag Bucks and prizes!

TWITTER

Twitter is a great outlet for sharing your wins, expressing your thoughts, or even asking questions. It’s easy to sign-up, and there are lots of rewarding opportunities that await you.

Twitter Tuesday Phrase That Pays (TTPTP) – TTPTP is the contest where your creativity is rewarded with Swag Bucks. Every Tuesday at 7am PST, we announce the TTPTP challenge right here in the blog. These challenges can be a fill in the blank, like “the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning is _____,” or questions that demand creativity, like “if there was such thing as an actual ‘party animal,’ what would it look like?” You have all day to send in your clever responses, until the winners are announced on Wednesday. There are always 3 runners-up who get 50 Swag Bucks each, and one grand prize winner who is rewarded with 500 Swag Bucks! Submit your responses through Twitter – make sure you include “#TTPTP,” or your tweet will not be seen.

Twitter Trivia – Rack your brain, earn some Search bucks, learn some fascinating facts, and be rewarded! Every Thursday at 3:30pm PST, we run a fun game of Trivia on our Twitter page. There are 4 questions – each question typically has 3 parts. In question 1, the first 4 correct responders win 50 Swag Bucks. In question 2, the first 3 correct responders win 75 Swag Bucks. In question 3, the first 2 correct responders win 100 Swag Bucks. And the first person to correctly answer the final question will win 150 Swag Bucks! If you’re lucky enough to hit a grand slam, meaning you were one of the first responders on all four questions, you’ll be rewarded with a 250 Swag Buck bonus! Make sure that when you are answering the question, you include ALL ANSWER PARTS in one tweet. Don’t know the answer off the top of your head? We don’t expect you to! Use Swagbucks to Search for the answers, and hopefully you’ll earn some Swag Bucks in the process!

Hashtag Hookups – Everyday, we hook up three users who send in a tweet using “#swagbucks.” This tweet could say “I just earned 10 Swag Bucks for searching on #swagbucks,” or it can say “I’m tired #swagbucks.” Just as long as you use “#swagbucks” you are qualified to be hooked up. These three users are selected at random and are rewarded with 100 Swag Bucks. Here’s a helpful hint – include your Swag Name in your tweet for a better chance at being hooked up – it’s easier for us to find you if you help us out!

BLOG

Oh, our beloved blog. Not only do we use our blog to inform you about all of the excitement that’s going on around Swagbucks, but we also use it as a way to reward our users!

Swagbucks Book Club – Did you know that Swagbucks had a Book Club? That’s right! Every Friday at 10am PST, Becky hits the blog to talk about books and relevant topics. Once a month she’s there to discuss a specific book, and if you participate in that discussion – which takes place in the comments section of the blog post – you have a chance to be hooked up with 25 Swag Bucks!

Comment Hookups – Every day, we hook up a user who leaves us a thoughtful and/or insightful comment in the blog. Whether it’s that you loved the latest set of Collector’s Bills or you weren’t crazy about the recipe that was shared, you have a chance to be hooked up with 100 Swag Bucks! These comment hookups also happen in the Swag Store and on SBTV videos. One user from each location – the blog, the Swag Store, and SBTV – who leaves an insightful comment will be hooked up with 100 Swag Bucks everyday.

Not only do we love the engagement we receive on all of our social platforms, it’s a great way for you to be rewarded!

Happy Earning!

~TSGal
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Are those CAPTCHAs on swagbucks getting to you. I would get them every now and then, and I would even miss a few. Eventually, the CAPTCHAs would last about three days straight. The worst was recently when I had to bear through them for about 6 weeks on every search and SBTV earnings.

So what can you do to get rid of them? Enter them in 100% correctly 100% of the time. They do this to make sure you are not a bot just auto-refreshing the videos. In fact they changed the SBTV so that after X number of refreshes, the website returns to the main SBTV page.

If CAPTCHAs are not going away, consider boycotting the site for a couple of days, and come back to do a trial run to see if they are still making you enter CAPTCHAs. If so, then stop and do something else. The less CAPTCHAs you are required to enter in, the greater your chance of having 100% success entering the CAPTCHAs and eliminating the need for a few more days of punishement.
 
Surveys for gift cards are my next method. Currently I use: I have given up on these sites because the payouts are less money for more time if I even get to complete the survey before being kicked out. Seriously, just get a second job to bring in way more money in far less time than how these survey aggregator companies rip you off.

  • ProOpinion [rewards are Amazon gift cards]
  • Valued Opinions [rewards include Amazon gift card which have been devalued by $2]
    I can get a $2 referral credit if you will private message me your e-mail in order to send an invite.

[*]Inspired Opinions [rewards include Amazon gift cards]
[*]Communispace [rewards are Amazon gift cards] This is a forum type survey where a question is posed and you have a few days to answer it and reply to other people's comments. For the ease, time commitment and pay, I highly recommend taking the opportunity to join a Communispace survey. I've gotten into this through Inspired Opinions.
[*]iPoll (formerly SurveyHead) [rewards include Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, GameStop gift cards]
  • Cons: It looks like there are a lot of surveys, but you won't qualify for many of them because they do a poor job of matching your profile to the available surveys. Lowered the average payout to $0.75 per 10min.

[*]Funovation Panel [review children's items for a chance in a random prize draw.]
[*]Vindale Research [rewards include PayPal or check]
  • Cons: Requires a buildup of $50 in order to cash out. Poor matching of surveys to your profile. Calls website offers "surveys," and true surveys are called "studies."

[*]e-Rewards (sign-up to GameStop's e-mail and you may get an invite which will allow you to get a $25 GameStop gift card each calendar quarter)
  • Cons: Beginning in Dec. 2012 they diminished the value of this reward; in other words it takes more work to get the same incentive. It went from $50 e-Rewards for $25 GS gift card to $75 for $25. Not worth it IMO, and this quote expresses my sentiment:
    argyle said:
    Yeah I had the $50 built up ready to cash in, just waiting on Jan. 1, when they bumped me up. I've decided I'm going to get the remaining credit to finish up this one, but after that I'm done. The surveys have gotten more & more time consuming, they often let you get a LONG way into them before telling you you don't qualify, and of course they're often extremely dull & repetitive. It was barely worth the $25 when you had to get $50 worth of credit, no way it's worth it at $75.
    Click to expand...

[*]Toluna [rewards include PayPal, a check, Tango gift card]
  • Cons: Very low payout for time spent. It looks like there are a lot of surveys, but you won't qualify for many of them because they do a poor job of matching your profile to the available surveys.
  • They're thieves: Your hard earned points expire leaving you with nothing. I cannot recommend them anymore.

If you want to multi-task while watching TV, surveys may be for you.

Just to forewarn you, filling out surveys is tedious and can be disheartening due to the the need to qualify for a survey, the time spent, and the low pay out for each survey (the average seems to be $1 per 10 minutes). But, perseverance can pay out in the end. With enough drops in the bucket you will qualify for the reward. Sometimes these smaller surveys can lead to bigger paying surveys/studies/product trials.

Edit History

-edit- added "cons" on 1/7/2013 after spending ~1 year using these survey sites (e-Rewards, SurveyHead, Valued Opinions, Toluna, and Inspired Opinions)
-edit- added Surveyhead "lower payout info" and Toluna "pros" on 3/12/2013
-edit- added Valued Opinions increased cost of Amazon GC on 4/2/2013
-edit- changed Surveyhead to iPoll on 4/22/2013
-edit- added Funovation Panel on 4/24/2013

-edit- added Communispace on 6/25/2013 and added info about it on 7/10/2013
-edit- added links on 6/27/2013

-edit- revised the iPoll rewards 9/4/2013, 9/26/2013

-edit- added Vindale Research 2/12/2014

-edit- sorted sites by my ranking; Toluna is a thief 6/30/2015

-edit- added ProOpinion and cons for Vindale Research 9/11/2015

-edit- added my overall dissatisfaction about survey money 10/13/2016

This should be my final edit because I am taking my link for this thread out of my signature. If you are reading this: Good luck on your finances!

 
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Credit Cards
Rewards credit cards can be the easiest. Just charge everything you would have normally paid cash or check for, such as your utilities, cell phone, groceries, gas, etc. Pay your bill in full. (Make sure you use credit wisely so you don't pay more for things due to paying interest and fees. If you can't pay your balance in full, don't use credit cards.) Then redeem your rewards.

These two credit cards could help you get free games. I was using the Sony Rewards Card, but now I am using the Chase Amazon Card. Either one gives you money that can be redeemed towards their website. Through SonyRewards.com I've gotten several games from their website and purchase reimbursement. They sometimes run specials such as spend 5000 pts (equivalent of $50) and get 5000 pts. So I got a $50 PSN card and a total of 6000 pts about a month later.
SonyRewardsbonus.jpg

Earn 10 pts daily by doing the Wheel of Fortune bonus puzzle.
You may find the answers here.

On August 5, 2014 this will end.

IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT SONY REWARDS POINTS
If you’ve been tuning in to Wheel at any time during our 31-plus years, you know that we’re big on “better.” So in an effort to give you a more rewarding Wheel Watchers Club experience, we’re switching things up. To start, as of August 5, 2014 you can no longer earn Sony Rewards Points in the Wheel Watchers Club. We need to make room for more spin-errific perks.

This small change won’t affect your personal SPIN ID in any way. As always, you have the chance to win $5,000 cash every weeknight … even through the summer months with $5K Every Day! Just tune in.

You can continue earning Sony Rewards Points with Wheel until August 5, 2014. After that, you can still play the Bonus Round Puzzle, but until we announce the new rewards you’ll be playing for bragging rights only. You can also continue to redeem your Sony Rewards Points through March 31, 2015. However, if you have a valid Sony Card or PlayStation Credit Card linked to your Sony Rewards account, then your Sony Rewards Points, including those earned in the Wheel Watchers Club, will expire five years from the end of the calendar month in which you earned them. If you have any additional questions, please visit our FAQs.

Keep reading your emails and check back at WheelofFortune.com for updates on enhancements to the Wheel Watchers Club.
Not yet a member? Join now.

Thanks for watching!
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Follow these three threads for more tips and points:
New thread: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=339852
Old thread: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210332
DVD/Blu-ray thread: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=318326

 
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