I Like Swag!

No, no, no.  Not that kind of swag...I like free stuff! But we'll get to that in a minute!


I drove over to Amarillo yesterday to evening to pick Flower up from Girl Scout Camp.  I was so happy to hear that she had so much fun, and she talked non-stop the entire way home about all the fun things they did.  They sang songs, and rode horses, made crafts, and went swimming.  But, like any Girl Scout, former or current, knows, it was the littlest things that stuck with her the most; the "swinging bridge" they had to walk over every day that was scary (but, like any child of mine, she loved it and purposefully made it swing to hear the other girls shreek!); the frog that kept jumping into their cabin no matter how many times they took it outside; getting to stay up late on the first night and play with their flashlights; how neat it was to hear the coyotes howling while they were trying to sleep, and how one girl thought surely it must be some wolf-man wanting to eat them.  Flower informed me that particular girl should never have come out into the country without her Mama, because she didn't know a thing about being "in the wild"...all she did was complain about how her hair was getting messed up!  We had to call Nana on the way home and tell her about all the fun things she did at camp!  I'm so happy she got that experience, and she is already wanting to go again next year!  I sent her with a disposable camera, so we will have to go through the archaic practice of getting the pictures developed, but we will share them.  (She did tell me that she hopes they look OK...since that dumb camera doesn't show her what the pictures look like she doesn't know if it really worked or not!)


Now, on to some thrifty and free things!  First, here is a great giveaway, from a blog I love to read called Christie Cottage.  (I love to read it, because she is open about her faith, and to me, that is more important than anything.  But today, she has a giveaway of a super cute hand drawn Eco Tote!  She has pretty simple rules for her giveaway, and maybe you could be the winner!


There are all kind of website you can go to to get free samples and the like.  What is so highly annoying about those is that you have to enter a lot of your personal information, i.e. address, phone number, email. Majority of the time, you end up with nothing except free spam e-mail that clutters your inbox to the point of no control.





About a year ago, an old friend told me about Swag Bucks.  Initially, I assumed it was just like any other "free" site, but since I know her and trust her judgement, thought I would give it a try.


Seriously.  If you aren't on Swag Bucks yet, you really need to be!


Swag Bucks is simply a search engine.  We all use search engines on a daily basis, and the only thing we get out of them is, well, a search result.  Not with Swag Bucks!  Not every time, but quite often, a search will win swagbucks, which vary in amount.  These swagbucks will accumulate in your account for as long as you wish for them to.  You can then turn those swagbucks into some cool loot from the Swag Store.  The Swag Store has everything from apparel to school supplies, music to posters, and more.  In my opinion, the best thing they have to offer are the gift cards!  They offer a little of everything, Amazon gift -cards to PayPal gift cards.  PayPal gift cards are my favorite!





I accumulated all my Swag Bucks until close to Christmas time last year, then traded them in on Amazon Gift cards.  I then used those gift cards to buy 3 different Christmas gifts off Amazon.  Honestly, that is free.  Absolutely ZERO dollars out of my pocket, and my daughter got a really cool knitting set!


There are other ways to win Swag Bucks besides searching, too.  You can complete special offers, watch "Swag TV", take a daily poll, and many others.  It might take a little while to accumulate enough SwagBucks to purchase something, but hey....it is free!


If you don't already have a Swag Bucks account, get one now by clicking here.  (And please do click from blog...that is how I get money to run this operation and all!) Or on any of the other links I have included in this blog.   Shoot, I just realized that I currently have enough Swagbucks to get a $5 Amazon.com gift card, and about 2 weeks ago I got a $5 PayPal gift card.  Not bad for doing nothing other than searching the internet.


Do you Swag?  Leave me a comment and let me know how you like it!  If you don't, then go now.  Seriously.  Go check them out!