~~ Thrifty Gifty Moneysaving Thread for Christmas and all Occasions 2012 ~~

elysia2003 · 25 December 2011 at 5:05PM

~*~Money making for Christmas and all occasions 2012~*~

Whether you are new to this thread or one of the gang from previous years (class of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011) please let me welcome you warmly into the group!

What are we all about? Christmas and Birthdays and other occasions often creep up on us. It’s an expense none of us want or need, so our ambition here is to get as much as we can for as little real cash as possible.

We do survey sites, review sites, eBay, we do car boot sales, we take advantage of glitches and basically try our very hardest to earn some money/vouchers that can cover the cost of special occasions and Christmas (Christmas is a major focus, as it has the most expense).

We run mini challenges on the 1st of the month. Many people, who have joined previously, have saved hundreds (or even thousands) on the original cost of gifts, and paid very little ‘real’ cash for their presents, opting to use their vouchers or cash back money instead.

Once you begin to make regular contributions to the thread, to help keep tabs on how much you earn/spend/save I can send you a copy of the Thrifty Gifty Spreadsheet. You will be able to keep a track of monthly earnings, total so far in the year, and also there’s a page dedicated to working out how much you have saved when buying you’ve bought your pressies – letting you know if you’re Money Neutral or not.

Money Neutral

What does ‘Money Neutral’ mean?

Basically, it means that you are able to buy a gift without actually paying any real cash out of your purse/wallet/bank account for it.

You could have paid for it using money ALREADY earned OR you could earn that amount of cash to COVER THE COST afterwards. As long as the incomings (money earned) are more than outgoings (cost of presents) you WILL be MONEY NEUTRAL!

Why a group?

We found in previous years that have other people to motivate you is really helpful to keep the momentum going. We are all in this together. A big happy money making family!

So is this just for Christmas or all special occasions?

That is entirely up to you! I managed to cover of the costs of Christmas and Birthdays for both 2010 AND 2011, but if you just want to join us for Christmas then feel free!

SOME GOOD STARTER POINTS.....

1. Make a list of everyone you need presents for in a dedicated Gift Notebook.

2. Keep your eye out in the sales for anything that might suit that person for their birthday or Christmas - try and buy it with loyalty points/vouchers

3. Make a note of how much you spend on our Spreadsheet and mark if you spend vouchers, points or cash.

4. Try and earn the cash to cover your purchases via eBay, surveys, writing reviews, cash back from Quidco etc.

5. Keep us posted on how you are doing with your earning!

6. Subscribe to this thread - come back to us! Click Thread tools above and click ‘subscribe’ then you can get emails to your inbox whenever there is a new post!

We'd love you to join us – feel free to join in whenever you feel like it.

That's not all!! We have a sister thread (thanks mum2one) who will help you get organised and spend your money in the most efficient way HERE.

Best of luck and hopefully this time next year, we will have all had a money neutral gift buying year!

Let’s all get together and make the year 2012 a fabulous one!
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elysia2003 · 25 December 2011 at 5:06PM

Survey Sites (nicknames we use on the thread are in brackets)

Valued Opinions (VO)– Payment at £10 – can redeem for Amazon instantly or collect HMV, Tesco, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Topman, Marriot Hotel/Spa vouchers, Argos, Boots or donate to a charity. Paper vouchers usually arrive in 4 weeks. Surveys vary in length and payment. You will always be informed how long it should take, and they are generally spot on. On occasions there are opportunities to join online forums where you earn extra cash, in addition to the surveys.

Onepoll (OP or Polly)– Payment at £40 Paid by BACS, Paypal or cheque. The surveys are very quick, and there are many a day, you need to keep checking back. £2.50 credit when you join.

Youngpoll (YP) is for Kids (between 6 and 15) – Payment at £20, and a £5 bonus when you join. That will get them a great head start. Surveys are usually less than 10 questions long and extremely quick. Surveys are not so often, but it’s all extra pocket money for the kids.

Toluna (LUNY) – Payment when you reach 80,000 points, which is equivalent to £15. The payment is made by paper voucher, and you can choose where to spend it. There’s HMV, love to shop (these can be spent at a variety of stores with just the one voucher), Debenhams, CD WOW, Halfords and Amazon (E Voucher but not instantly). This is the bugbear with toluna, payment can take anything from 6 – 10 weeks, it’s a bit hit and miss.

Surveys are emailed you regularly – several times a day to be precise, and although you have filled out a demographic study, with my reckoning, you only get to complete about half of them. If you do not complete it, you are entered into a prize draw so all is not lost. You are able to vote on quick polls, each day and this bumps up your points significantly. You can ask people’s opinions and you will earn extra points for this too. Your points mount up quite quickly but you have to put the effort in.

Mysurvey ( MYS)(formerly Lightspeed) - he site is well laid out and easy to manoeuvre. Payment is by Paypal, Amazon, Marks and Spencer, Dress for Less, Argos and the charity Unicef. Payment is at 1,380 points which is equal to £10, but you can let your points mount up to get better value. This is risky though, the company could go out of business overnight, and all money would be lost. Cash out as soon as you can if possible.

Opinion People (OP) – You get paid per survey either Bonus Points or raffle tickets. Quite a few survey sites give you tickets for a draw if you don’t make it filling out the whole survey. Each survey is worth so many points and payment is at 150 points (worth £15). Payment is by Paypal or bank transfer (BACS?) or to charity. It’s quite a nice looking site but it’s never going to earn you lots of money. Sign up anyway – if you don’t bother, you’ll never make anything.

NewVistaLive (NV)– Payment is according to how long your survey lasts, anything from £1 upwards. Payment is at £50 by cheque. As you near £50 you do find you get less surveys through, but try and refer someone. It could me 15months to get my first cheque, but only 9 for the second.

IAP (Ipsos) (IPS)– This is a brilliant site – payment is really quick. Surveys are very regular but usually about the 20 minute or so range. A £10 voucher is worth 1,350 points. Paper vouchers can be redeemed at John Lewis, Leisure voucher (various eateries), Capital bond voucher (various high street stores) or a voucher for a wide range of charities. You are able to redeem for an Amazon E-voucher. I have recently redeemed and my vouchers took only three weeks to arrive – the quickest so far.

IAP – also have a reward program. The more surveys you take, the more bonus points they give you. There are also many opportunities to win prizes with their VIP program.

globaltestmarket (GTM) They send at least 3 or 4 surveys a day between 15 and 60 points each but sometimes they are just sweepstake ones. I probably get to do about 2 a day. It is an American site and once you get to 1000 points you get $50 which is about £32 sent by cheque.

Maximiles (MM OR MAXI) - You have to opt to do surveys on the tab to be sent surveys. You also get points for clicking through the emails they send you and you can also watch videos and rate for 5 points on each. It is also a cashback site. Surveys are a bit scarce but it’s worth joining. There is a link on the site for free points,which is worth looking at too.
£10 vouchers are worth 3,000 points, but hang on until you reach 3,500, and you can have a M&S E voucher (takes about a week to be processed).

Survey Network (SRVY NTWK or SN)- this is a new site recommended to us. You have three main surveys per month that you take daily. These are on your main page. You also get several surveys emailed to regularly. They surveys get credited on Tuesdays and Fridays. Payment is by Paypal, once you have reached £20 - this get's applied to your account within the hour, no hanging around for weeks waiting with this site. We are finding that you get screened out more often than not lately, but if you have spare time, it’s worth signing up, you never know, you might be the right demographic they are looking for.

Swagbucks. (SB) Although it is an American site, the UK user can earn rewards, but the UK user is limited to what they can cash out for. We are only able to claim paypal cash, and UK amazon vouchers. I have found it better value to save up 849 swagbucks to get a £5 amazon voucher. 700 swagbucks can be converted to $5 into your paypal account, which is roughly about £3.

The main way to earn money through this site is it has a searchbar you can download onto your computer. Every day you use their tool bar to search instead of Google. Occasionally you will be rewarded with between 5 and 50 swagbucks, up to 4 times per day. Sometimes the site will ask you to write in a code so it isn't an autobot earning the reward.

I also look on the earn section of the site. Every day there is a poll. If you vote on a poll, then you are rewarded with a swagbuck. Also, you can look through the NOSO section, where you can skip through some adverts and then you are rewarded at the end with 2 swagbucks. There is a puzzle to solve, but all you do is type in the words shown in the puzzle box. Then go onto the "special offers" section on the "earn" drop down, and do bits and bobs on those! and finally the Ppayment wall tab has surveys to fill in, and the supersonic tab has videos to watch all for extra points.

The quickest way to regularly find extra points is that there are bonus codes released. These are found on facebook or if you are not a member there, you can also check out this website: http://sbcodez.com/ It is a slow earner but not at all time consuming.

Vivatic.com (VIVA) This site has regular surveys for 85p or £1 each. There is usually one, two or three sites listed, and you keep doing surveys for each site, until you have qualified for three on each site. This means if you a very lucky, you are able to do £9 worth of surveys per day. Payment is set at £25 by paypal, and payment runs are done at the end of every month.

Pinec0ne (Piney) - If you are already a member, this site is also not to be mentioned on the thread. They don't like discussion about it in any form.

*** More to follow ***

elysia2003 · 25 December 2011 at 5:06PM

Other sites where you can earn money

Bingoport – (WARNING - THIS MUST NOT BE MENTIONED ON THE SITE - THE OWNERS OF BINGOPORT ARE MONITORING THIS THREAD, AND CAN AND WILL, BAN YOU FOR SIMPLY BEING A MEMBER HERE - by all means, please sign up. It's easy money, but please don't mention your username on the thread)

Join, and play free bingo every day. When you have 10,000 points in your account you can redeem for a £5 Amazon E-Voucher (provided you’ve used more than 2,000 points playing bingo the week before). To get more BP’s (points) you are able to post on the forum up to ten times per day, you will obtain 100 points per post. This is very boring but if you play five games with 18 tickets (twice) on automatic, you can post on the forum at the same time – getting the job done quicker and easier.

DO NOT REDEEM EVERY FORTNIGHT FOR VOUCHERS (they will throw you off the site) – TRY AND SPEND SOME OF YOUR EARNINGS ACTUALLY PLAYING BINGO ON SOME OF THE SITES THEY RECOMMEND – YOU NEVER KNOW, YOU MAY ACTUALLY GET LUCKY.

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REVIEW SITES

Dooyoo (dooU) – here is where we write reviews. Each review MUST be of good quality or your review will be locked and you WILL NOT receive payment at all. They must be over 150 words, of quality – if its nonsense, no-one will read, or rate. You get so much money added to your account for writing the review in the first place, and then you receive so much money per rate you receive. This is most defiantly a site where, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, comes into play. The more you rate other reviews, they are more inclined to rate yours. The scale of payment varies per topic varies greatly. Electronics reviews are worth the most moneywise but they are the most detailed to write. A review on how to make the best apple crumble will not pay anything for posting, but you will get points per rating.

Top tip – Add as much detail as you can without going overboard. Be precise and to the point, don’t waffle! The best reviews are awarded a crown, and for this you will get paid a bonus. This site is fun, and quite addictive when you get into it, but rating does take a long time – You MUST read the review, the whole review, no speed clicking allowed – you are being timed!

Ciao.co.uk (chow) - This is another review site. Simply copy your review from Dooyoo and paste into Ciao. You must do rating on here too, but you will in effect earn double from the one review if you see what I mean. Do the best you can, as whereas Dooyoo if you write an excellent review you can earn a crown, with Ciao, you can earn part of the Premium Fund. Details below:

Each month, a “Premium Fund” of approximately £2400 is divided out between the best reviews as follows: £15x10 (Diamonds), £10x20, £5x100 and £2x775. Please note that Ciao Cafe! Reviews are not being considered for a “Premium Fund” Award.

Cafe are opinion reviews, such as how to deal with depression, or recipes, are what you would do if you won the lottery etc. They don't have any help to consumers (they don't actually lead to a sale, so they are worthless).

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Cash back sites

Earn back commission on your purchases, and also earn extra money from taking out insurances, buying or recycling phones, or switching suppliers for utilities.

Quidco – this is the one, in my opinion, is the best. Others may disagree. Whatever you do online, check it’s not on quidco first – from buying flowers, joining survey sites, checking out the comparison sites (compare the market, kelkoo etc) even buying your online supermarket shopping, make sure you go through a cash back site such as this, to earn back money. Payments with quidco are made every two weeks. This doesn’t mean anything though. Once your purchase has tracked, it has to go to validated, and then received before payment can be made. This process can take days (as in the case of Let’s go Rewards, to years!!!). A big tip is – it’s not free money as such, but treat it as though it is, cash back money is not a right, It’s a bonus. Think like that, and you won’t go far wrong! Quidco costs £5 a year (which is taken only once you have earned £5. Everything else then is yours. Payment is by BACS (any amount) or PayPal (under £50).

Topcashback is more or less the same as quidco. There is no fee for using its service though, plus you can earn extra 1% cash back over and above the rate quoted.

My tip is to join both, as it won’t cost any extra than joining quidco alone. They both have exclusive deals, so this way you get the best of both worlds. Check out each site before you commit to each purchase though as you may kick yourself to find the cash back is more on the one you haven’t used. Typical!

There are others – Captain Cash back, Quanti, Ilovecashback etc (Google them, you’ll find loads) but these are the ones above have the best payment reputation, and can intervene when things don’t go to plan.

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EBay

My Quick Guide to selling on eBay.

To sell on eBay you must first have registered, and you must also have a PayPal account and a landline.

To sell you click 'Sell' at the top left hand corner. This is really quick as all the categories are chosen for you. You just have to choose which one is better suited to your product and highlight it. It’s really simple and self explanatory.

At this point, you can choose to pay an extra 6p to have you listing finish at a time which is convenient to you AND your potential customers are at home (potentially placing last minute bids). If you are listing your items during the daytime, this is most highly recommended as you will recoup much more than 6p if you item sells. The best time for listings to end is anywhere between 6.30 and 10pm. The last minute bids can really bump up the prices.

You have the option on both versions, to place the item on 'buy it now' this means that a buyer can purchase (at your stated price) at any time they require, without having to wait for the listing to end.

You need to have items weighed and get some idea of postal charges. I get my information from www.royalmail.co.uk.

In the My EBay 'Selling' section of the site, this is where all your information is held. You may see how much you item are listed for in red, and when it turns green you have a bid. Next to each listing is a counter of how many people are watching the item (with a view to placing a last minute bid of either just comparing to see if they can get it cheaper).

Once the listing has gone green, the item will sell, whether or not you get further bids is whether or not other people require that item and are willing to pay more.

When the listing ends, in My EBay section you will now have the option to send the winning bidder an invoice. Sometimes people pay, via PayPal before you have even sent this. This is when you know your item will be going to a good home, because they are eager to pay! Once they have paid the £ sign icon will turn blue.

You are now able to parcel up your package and post it. I like to put a little note in there, thanking them for their purchase. At this point you may leave feedback for them and mark the item as dispatched.

You have now, posted your parcels, and left feedback. You can now sit back and await the positive feedback.

If an item does not sell, you are able to re-list again. Re-listing is much more straightforward than starting the whole process again. In My EBay, on the item that did not sell, you will find the tag - re-list this item, press that and the process starts again, as if by magic!

SELLING ON AMAZON (guide written by 7Roland8 1.1.12)

I used to find it great - list everything and then just forget about it - only charged if they sell. Games are no problem - one word of warning with books - they only allow you £2 something for the postage - so if you have a heavy book you could be out of pocket - we learnt the hard way!

Some things not worth listing if there are millions on there already - just check as you go along - we've got rid of no end of stuff that way - but remember - only very light books!

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BOOTS/NECTAR/TESCO CLUBCARD POINTS

Remember to always use your cards for EVERY shop. It’s free money (well not free exactly, but if you were shopping there anyway

).

If you go onto the Nectar site and download their search bar, you are able to earn extra nectar points just for searching. It all mounts up, and at the end of the year you can use them for buying your Christmas grocery, or exchange them for Amazon Vouchers and buy gifts.

Try and save your Boots Points all year, and spend them in the 50% /75% sales after Christmas, or even when you see a good deal or glitch. This will make those pennies go further.

More to follow

elysia2003 · 25 December 2011 at 5:07PM

Challenge 1: January 2011.

1. JOIN ANY OF THE SITES ON THIS LIST. YOU MIGHT ALREADY BE A MEMBER OF SOME OF THEM, JUST IGNORE THOSE.

If it has Referral at the side - please ask another member to refer you

www.elite-shopping-forum.co.uk Referral (sign up first, and pm another member your username and email addy)
www.yoursaypays.co.uk Referral
www.vivatic.com * NO RF
www.surveyhead.com Referral
www.justtheanswer.co.uk Referral
www.crowdology.co.uk * NO RF
www.opiniumresearch.com Referral
www.consumer-opinion.com Referral
www.hi-epanel.com * NO RF
www.opinion-people.com * NO RF
www.valuedopinions.co.uk/ Referral
www.springboarduk.com * NO RF
www.wonderbug.com * NO RF
www.opinionworld.co.uk * NO RF
www.opinionoutpost.co.uk * NO RF
www.pureprofile.com * NO RF
www.surveyfriends.co.uk Referral
www.mindmover.co.uk * NO RF
www.consumerintellingence.com Referral
www.onepoll.com * NO RF
www2.thats-what-i-think.co.uk * NO RF
www.wepaypersurvey.co.uk ?
www.acop.com * NO RF
www.panelbase.net Referral
www.surveyfriends.co.uk Referral
www.surveys.com Referral
www.iap-interactive.com Referral
www.mysurvey.com Referral
www.surveynetwork.co.uk Referral
www.populuslive.com Referral
www.newvistalive.com Referral
www.toluna.com Referral
www.swagbucks.com Referral
www.myvoice.com Referral

These ones I can't recommend as I don't fit the demograpic

Dialego
Song People

Posted by Pinkfluffybabe 3/01/12
If anyone has an iphone, there is an app available called NPolls - they are US based but sent very regular surveys (quick 6/7 question types) and they pay out at $10. I've had one lot of payment and I'm back up at $7 again after a few weeks. Only issue is waiting for paypal to have a decent £/$ exchange rate!

Can I also add autoinsight to the list? It's a survey site for car owners and pays out in amazon vouchers - I get about £10 every quarter. No referral.

Register your interest at Shop and Scan at volunteer4panels.com
And join a free lottery at www.freepostcodelottery.com – remember to check every day.

***PLEASE ASK ANOTHER MEMBER TO REFER YOU.*** IT MIGHT ONLY BE WORTH A LITTLE BIT TO THEM, BUT IT ALL MOUNTS UP, AND YOU’LL GET YOUR CHANCE TO REFER OTHER PEOPLE SO YOU’LL BENEFIT TOO.

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2. OPEN A SEPARATE CHRISTMAS SAVINGS ACCOUNT.

If you haven't already, can you open a separate savings account for Christmas money? It will be so much easier for you.

Go through quidco and there's an RBS current account that you can join online and it only takes 5 minutes. No cash back for it though sadly.

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3. THE AIM IS TO MAKE £50 ON EBAY (after all ebay/paypal fees and postage has been taken into account).

Have a sort out and see if theres any presents you received that you don't like and can re-gift. If there's something you wouldn't give to your worst enemy. List that.

Have a sort through the kid’s toys and list anything they haven't played with in a while.
Have a general de-clutter and see what else you can find. You may be amazed. If you've not done eBay before give it a go - it's a bit addictive.

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4. Save for January sales!
Find a sealed money box, and every time you come home from shopping, empty your purse of all the coppers (silver too if you want to save more).

This is not to be opened UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - this will be opened on the 17th December (a week before Christmas) in readiness for the Sales.

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This seems like a lot, but the hard work is going to be the eBay one. Remember you have a whole month to complete it, so don't rush. Take your time!!!

List a few items a week, and let it run it's course. Then list a few more. This is not a competition who can earn the most - it's a challenge to see if YOU can earn £50 by turning unwanted stuff into money.

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Thrifty Gifty - Challenge Two - February 2012

1. For Review Writers - Declare how many reviews you would like to post this month. Post the number on the thread, and I WILL be along to check how your challenge is going. If you don’t complete it, you will have to come up with an idea for March’s challenge, so be warned.

2. For Everyone - Make a special effort on Tolun@ (or any site you wish). Do sponsored and quick surveys daily, and attempt every survey you are invited to (not just the high paying ones). Make an effort to write your own polls and opinions (100 points each), and answer other peoples (where you will be paid 100 points if your reply is over 80 words).

3. Make a special effort to use as many coupons/special offers as you can, and put the savings you’ve made to one side for Christmas Food/Treats etc. Perhaps buy some Christmas savings tokens/stamps with it, so you can’t be tempted to dip into the cash. You can find the discount codes and vouchers board here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38

4. Now for something a bit different - as it’s been a long, dark winter, and with Valentines this month - make some time to love yourself too. Enjoy a little ’me’ time and have a treat that doesn’t cost anything. Read a book you bought a while ago but didn‘t get around to, have a long, luxurious soak (no kids allowed), Google recipes for a face mask/foot soak/body scrub using ingredients in your kitchen cupboards, or get OH to give you a relaxing massage. Anything! Just as long as you don’t spend any money on it.

Everyone has done so well during January and we deserve a treat, so make sure you do the last challenge as well. OK?

I hope this is OK - and TOGETHER we can make February’s totals even better than January. We CAN DO IT.

elysia2003 · 25 December 2011 at 5:07PM

This post is reserved for challenges

slm6002 · 25 December 2011 at 5:26PM

Please can i be part of 2012 challenge. I joined a little late this year but already a few pound in the pot for next years pressies

elysia2003 · 25 December 2011 at 5:28PM

Of course you can hun. Welcome to the new shiny thread. We look forward to having you here next year.

Legendmum · 25 December 2011 at 8:49PM

WooHoo! Back on the Thrifty mission for another year! Lets go! Sales start tomorrow and so does next years Christmas shopping!

emmad5689 · 25 December 2011 at 10:14PM

Merry Christmas all hope we all had a great day - oh a shiny new thread!

I'm going to be brave and go to the sales in the morning with 2 children in tow - shud be fun!! My eldests daughters main present was a baby annabel and when we have taken it out of the box the arm is broke so have to go n try and sort it out. If it isn't too busy I plan on going to matalan, asda and boots hoping to find some bargains for next years christmas xx

cha97michelle · 25 December 2011 at 10:34PM

I am so back in for next year. I need to restock wrapping paper and cards for next year. I'm hoping Mr T has some bargain rolls in again in the sales.

Let the new year commence.:D

slm6002 · 25 December 2011 at 10:40PM

No money for the sales this year but i do have enough paper left from last years sales to keep me going for at least another year

~~ Thrifty Gifty Moneysaving Thread for Christmas and all Occasions 2012 ~~

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