Thrify Gifty Santas Challenge 2013,

mum2one

A big warm welcome to old friends and new and heres to a money neurtal birthday and Christmas, that we find all the bargains and along the way have fun with the challenges.

Santas Challenge - That special day of the month, the 24th, where we have a challenge, I always say think of it as a pick and mix, if you fancy a task then great grab it, if you've already done it or haven't got it no problem pull up a cup of tea and chill and relax.

Your among friends here, whether you want to moan about that special man, or lack of a gd man (in my case!), or your tuck what to buy an 8 yr old, were all here and if we can help we will.

Happy New Year xx


SOME GOOD STARTER POINTS.....

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

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

3. Make a note of how much you spend on Your Spreadsheet and markif 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 toolsabove and click ‘subscribe’ then you can get emails to your inbox wheneverthere is a new post!

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

Cher-Ching

I am all ready to jump aboard this year, got some great tips towards the end of last year but aiming to go full on this year! Already got my cards and wrapping paper sorted

mum2one

Money making, - in previous years we had a sister thread, the thrify gifty, which showed ideas to make money, suggestions and money making challenges, unfortunatly that is not continuing for 2013, but Elysia2003, was very kind and said i could borrow her list of money making sites, incase they are any use to anyone. (THE INFRO FROM 2012 SO MAY HAVE CHANGED)

SURVEY SITES

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 itshould take, and they are generally spot on. On occasions there areopportunities to join online forums where you earn extra cash, in addition tothe 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, youneed to keep checking back. £2.50 credit when you join.


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


NewVistaLive (NV)– Payment is according to how long yoursurvey lasts, anything from £1 upwards. Payment is at £50 by cheque

.

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

Maximiles (MM OR MAXI) - You have to opt to do surveys on the tab to be sent surveys. You alsoget points for clicking through the emails they send you and you can also watchvideos and rate for 5 points on each. It is also a cashback site. Surveys are abit scarce but it’s worth joining. There is a link on the site for freepoints,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).

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


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

mum2one

(Borrowed from Elysia (thank you).

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

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

mum2one

Cash back sites

Earn back commission on your purchases, and also earn extra moneyfrom taking out insurances, buying or recycling phones, or switching suppliersfor utilities.

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

Topcashbackis more or less the same as quidco. There is no fee for using its servicethough, 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 joiningquidco alone. They both have exclusive deals, so this way you get the best ofboth worlds. Check out each site before you commit to each purchase though asyou may kick yourself to find the cash back is more on the one you haven’tused. Typical!

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

mum2one

EBay by Elysia

My Quick Guide to selling on eBay.

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

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

At this point, you can choose to pay an extra 6p to have you listingfinish at a time which is convenient to you AND your potential customers are athome (potentially placing last minute bids). If you are listing your itemsduring the daytime, this is most highly recommended as you will recoup muchmore than 6p if you item sells. The best time for listings to end is anywherebetween 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 theyrequire, without having to wait for the listing to end.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mum2one

BOOTS/NECTAR/TESCO / SUPERDRUG CLUBCARD POINTS

Remember to always use your cards for EVERY shop. It’s free money (wellnot free exactly, but if you were shopping there anyway ).

If you go onto the Nectar site and download their search bar, you areable to earn extra nectar points just for searching. It all mounts up, and atthe end of the year you can use them for buying your Christmas grocery, orexchange 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 willmake those pennies go further.

General Value of Points

Boots - Give 4 points to the £1 (4p for every pound spent - on whole pounds only.

Superdrug - 10 points to the £1 - but 10 points = 1p

Tesco - 1 point to £1 = 1p (keep an eye out for reward offers can x 3 the face value.

Sainsburys - 2 points per £1 but 2 points = 1p!

Cher-Ching

Thanks for all the tips. Where can I get hold of the spreadsheet? Thanks

curiouscrafter

I would love to join please, i have also subscribed, goin to have a look at the survey sites, look foraard to getting to know you all

mum2one

Cher-Ching wrote: »

Thanks for all the tips. Where can I get hold of the spreadsheet? Thanks

I've done a basic spreadsheet, with bday, xmas and points sheet, - I've filled in a couple of lines on each - just to show how it works, - theres a lot of freedom so you adjust to how you need it.

I know we all don't do same survey sites etc.

If anyone wants a copy pm your email address - once you've got it if you could let me know then in the nicest of ways I can delete your email addy.

xx

mum2one

A massive hi to Cher-Ching, (love that name) and equally big hi to curious crafter, any craft ideas bring them along, - my one and only craft item is a blue peter letter rack from the 1970s!! xx