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Top Money Saving and Comping Tips from a 21 year-old Student keen to make my limited budget stretch the semester!

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Monday 21 September 2015

Take Surveys, Get Money! The Best Survey Sites Tested by Me!

As I sit here typing away on my brand new tablet I marvel at the fact that I didn't pay a single penny for it. I didn't steal it, and I didn't win it. I worked for it, without doing a 9-5. I surveyed for it.

After doing about 2 months of surveys on a variety of sites, I built up £145 worth of amazon vouchers and got myself a tablet with £5 to spare to put towards a pretty pink case. However, it was 2 months of trial and error (which wasted much time), but now I know what I'm doing, the points are adding up fast. So to save you lovely lot the effort of trial and error, I will share my secrets with you today. I would recommend being a member of at least 2 or 3 of survey sites so that you can combine all your vouchers to get something big you've been wanting for ages, or to help out during the festive period. And so we begin with my personal favourite:

1) SWAGBUCKS  - for those with lots of time


If you are willing to put the time and loyalty in, Swagbucks is a great bet. There are so many ways to earn points, just from doing things you might do anyway. For example, I changed my search engine to Swagbucks, (you can also download the Swagbucks toolbar for extra points) and every so often I will win points (from 8 to 17 ish) just for searching for something! You won't win on every search and it is totally random. I have found you win swagbucks every 3 - 4 hours and, if you have just won, you won't win again for a while. Try to use it to search for things you would be searching for anyway, rather than just random words, as it will notice if your searches are fake, repeated or unnatural.

You can also watch videos, play games and take part in deals but BE CAREFUL!! I never enter any of the deals that ask for money, because then you are spending money to earn money which defeats the point. The videos are in playlist form and watching a playlist usually gets you 1 or 2 swagbucks. There are so many to choose from so there will be something worth watching in there for you. I personally like to do the yoga along with the yoga playlists in the 'Fitness' section. What better way to encourage you to get fit than to get points for doing it?!

The main way in which I earn Swagbucks is through surveys. This took me a while to realise, but there are 3 survey sections in the one site, all under the general heading of 'Swagbucks Answer' - Gold Surveys (run by Swagbucks), Partner Surveys (from their trusted partners) and Peanut Labs Surveys. Don't give up hope when you are screened out of surveys, this happens to all of us. Just stick with it and answer as many as you can and you will see the points will come rolling in.

It is worth being loyal to Swagbucks and using it everyday. This is because they have a Daily Goal which, if you make it every day, you will get extra SB (SwagBucks). For example, if you earn your daily goal every day for a week, you will get a 20SB bonus if this is the longest winning streak you get that month. Roughly each 7 day period is a streak so you can get up to 300SB at the end of the month if you manage to make your goal every day for the whole month. This is a great motivator and not too hard to achieve.

When it came to requesting my voucher, Swagbucks was great. I ordered it on the 9th of September and I got my email with the Amazon Gift Voucher on the 11th of September. Very efficient and no problems putting the code through. A nice little £30 towards my tablet. If you fancy joining the SwagBucks family, use [this link] to get started.

Although Swagbucks is one of my favourites, it can take longer than some of the others to build up the points which leads me to...

2) GLOBAL TEST MARKET - for the big bucks


Global Test Market is where I earned the most - a cool £55 if you please. These surveys are emailed straight to your inbox and tend to take around 15-30 minutes, depending on the survey. I receive around 2 or 3 a day, which is good for me as it doesn't spam my inbox but gives me plenty to do.

Again, the process of getting the vouchers was so easy and I received the vouchers within 4 days of emailing. However, if you are looking for something that is a little less often go for:

3) I-SAY - for the casual surveyer


i-Say is great for people who don't want to commit their lives to surveys but still want the bonuses. The email invites are rarer, but are worth doing as you only need 1350 points to get £10 of Amazon vouchers, and each survey is around 50-100 points. Also, this company was by far the fastest to send out the rewards with a time Usain Bolt would be proud of - a whole 10 minutes from my request to the gift voucher being in my amazon account!

The more surveys you complete, the more loyalty points you receive, and so your points build up faster! Also, if you are screened out of a survey, you get a certain number of points depending on how far through the survey you got. This is really refreshing in the survey world, as often you only get entries to a prize draw, or sometimes nothing!

4) INBOXPOUNDS - Surveys and searches


Inboxpounds is like Swagbucks in some ways, in that it is not just surveys that let you gather up the points. They will send you 'paid emails' straight to your inbox. These will normally include an advertisement or a way to earn more inbox pounds, however all you have to do is click 'confirm paid email' to earn that 1p. Yes, I said one pence. But hey, every little helps!

A way to make more money from this is through the search engine. Each day you can earn 15p from the search engine and contribute towards a weekly bonus - where if you search 4 days a week you get a 5p bonus. I know it seems small, but I managed to earn £20 from inbox pounds in my 2 months, so it certainly adds up!

Another way to earn is by surveys. Sometimes these will be emailed to you (check under email preferences if you have signed up for this) and other times you will have to go on the main page to find them. Again they have a section run by Peanut Labs, so you may be used to the format if you use Swagbucks.

You get your payment in the form of a cheque, and I received mine within a month and it all went through perfectly. Sign up now [here].

But where there is joy, there is always one to let the side down:

5) DOOYOO - for people with opinions


Dooyoo is a little different from the other sites mentioned here today, as you don't give your opinion through surveys, but through reviews. Simply go on and search for a product you use, click the review button and leave your opinion. Sounds simple, right? Not so much. Each review has to be over 250 words (but be sure to make it a but longer as they can become rather fussy about what is 'waffle' and so doesn't contribute when you go to claim) and has to have relevant information in it. You then earn either 100, 300, or 600 dooyoo 'miles' (which are used to exchange for vouchers later) depending on the topic. You also get points when people read your review and leave a 'helpful rating'. As good practice, it is good to read other peoples reviews and rate them as helpful, not just because it is polite, but because the site can check if you just read and don't rate reviews. Also, other members can see who rated their review and so may check yours out after as a thanks!

My only issue came when I went to get my reward. The claim button wasn't working. And so I went to the help pages and sent a few emails to try and get to the bottom of the problem. No response. this was a great disappointment, as they had been quick to reply earlier when I had queries when starting up as a new dooyooer. Now 2 weeks on from sending the email, I am beginning to lose hope, and will update the blog if I ever hear back from them.

I like the idea of dooyoo, but it is one of the biggest time commitments, hence my disappointment in missing out on my £20 voucher when finally getting over 20 000 points!

This is just a quick summary of the many many survey sites you can get, but these are my favourites (apart from dooyoo). I also like tickbox.net, which also has an app, but you cannot claim for vouchers, instead you claim a specific item they have featured on their site such as a CD.

Surveying may seem like a time investment, but you can put in as much or as little time as you like - the more time you put in, the more rewards you can get. However, even if you just do the odd survey, it can all contribute towards saving money for that big item you've always wanted or getting your family something a little special at Christmas.

For any comments, suggestions or questions, leave a comment below or message or tweet me @LaurieBeat.

Thanks for your time, happy surveying! :)


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